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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27142477">The Hogwarts Youth Symphony Orchestra</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ameliortea/pseuds/ameliortea'>ameliortea</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Muggle, Alternate Universe - Orchestra, Draco has a thing for film music, Drama &amp; Romance, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Musician Draco Malfoy, Musicians, Orchestra, Violins, music is magic</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 21:20:58</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>36,987</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27142477</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ameliortea/pseuds/ameliortea</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The Hogwarts Youth Symphony Orchestra, led by retired world-renowned conductor Albus Dumbledore, is the premier youth orchestra of the city. Thousands audition for a coveted seat and the chance to win the Spring Concerto Competition. The winner is guaranteed admission to any university or conservatory in the country.</p><p>Hermione Granger is the lucky and talented violinist chosen to be Concertmaster, but not everyone is happy that a girl from a non-musical family, let alone the local Gryffindor High School, has taken the top spot. Her stand partner, one Draco Lucius Malfoy of Slytherin Preparatory, is particularly furious.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Daphne Greengrass/Theodore Nott, Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>124</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>85</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. A Very Short Sneak Preview of the Spring Concert</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>If there's anything you recognize, I don't own it!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The Hogsmeade Center for the Arts was the brightest building in the city the night of the annual Hogwarts Youth Symphony Orchestra Spring Concert. Families of the players, wealthy patrons who were avid fans of all music, younger students who dreamed to play in the orchestra one day, and interested scouts for other orchestras and programs were among the hundreds who streamed into the main concert hall.</p><p>Backstage, Hermione peeked through the doors to the stage to see people coming in before weaving through other musicians and empty cases to go back to the practice room. She nearly tripped over someone else’s case by the door, but Harry managed to catch her while holding onto his cello. “Careful there, Hermione. Don’t want you breaking anything, especially not your violin tonight.”</p><p>She smoothed her black blouse with a weak chuckle. “Thanks, Harry. There’s a lot of people out there. I think it’s a full house.”</p><p>He grinned down at her as she fussed over his crooked tie. “Just more people to see our lovely Concertmaster lead the orchestra.”</p><p>She managed a weak chuckle as Dumbledore called for everyone to line up by the door. “I’ll see you out there, Harry.” Everyone made towards the door, Ron and Ginny smiling at her as they led the violas through the rehearsal space, but Hermione carefully sat in her seat and nervously practiced her fingering on her violin. Her fingers were shaking a little due to the cold air conditioning, and she needed to make sure they didn’t freeze before going onstage.</p><p>“Are you alright, Granger?” Draco asked as he approached her. His jacket was unbuttoned, but every inch of his suit was perfectly pressed, and his hair was perfectly coiffed. She didn’t expect anything less of him when it came to his appearances.</p><p>“I’m fine,” she whispered with a small smile. “Why aren’t you lining up with the others? It’s almost time.”</p><p>“I need to grab the music. Can’t have our Concertmaster coming in juggling pages,” he replied with a wink. He leaned across her to grab their folder, and she could smell his cologne as he moved closer to her than strictly necessary. It helped her relax a tiny fraction. The scent made her think of popcorn and dragons, the cold stone of a balcony against her back in the middle of winter, and lazy but profound conversations on a soft couch in the Malfoy library.</p><p>She met his eyes, and he frowned before shifting the folder under his arm and covering her small frozen fingers with his larger warm hand. He squeezed lightly and rubbed his thumb over her knuckles in a way that no one else could see. “It’ll be perfect, Hermione. Come out at your cue, and I’ll be waiting,” he murmured quietly.</p><p>Hermione nodded and felt her nerves settle, as he gently squeezed her fingers one more time with a soft smile strictly reserved for her before making his way towards the rest of the orchestra that was beginning to filter out the door.</p>
<hr/><p>The ushers at the doors were handing out programs to every person who entered the concert hall. A few people opened them on their way in, while others opened them once they found a seat that suited them. Everyone immediately flipped to see what pieces would be performed that night and, more importantly, who had won the concerto competition this year. It was an opportunity many coveted, and was next to impossible to get after already making it into the notoriously competitive program. More than a few brows were raised at the large blank in the program after the intermission. There was no sign of any concerto winner or even a hint of what instrument would be getting the solo.</p><p>Lucius Malfoy was among those who raised an eyebrow. “I still can’t believe our own son won’t tell us if he won the concerto competition or not. Dumbledore’s doing something odd again,” he murmured to his wife on his arm.</p><p>Tutting, she smiled at him. “Darling, I’m sure the program will be more than adequate. I heard from the Parkinsons that the students aren’t allowed to tell anyone who won or what piece is being played. I’m sure it’ll be something marvelous if Dumbledore is going to such lengths to keep it under wraps.”</p><p>Her husband sighed as they looked towards the front for good seats. Narcissa had wanted to take a couple photos of Draco playing. He froze as he saw a pale man sitting in the second row. “What is he doing here?” he hissed.</p><p>Narcissa looked to where her husband was glaring and tightened her hand on his arm. More than a few of their acquaintances that usually sat towards the front were also looking for different seats once they saw who was sitting at the front. “Why don’t we go to the balcony, darling? I’m sure we’ll get a much better view from up there. I do think I see a few familiar faces.”</p><p>Arthur Weasley was happily chatting to the Grangers as they entered the concert hall. “I think this will be the best concert yet. The concerto competition is always quite exciting, and the winner is always spectacular.”</p><p>Jean Granger nodded as she looked around the vast room. “I always forget how big this room is.”</p><p>Her husband chuckled next to her. “We’ve only been here twice before, my dear. But, I’m excited to see Hermione play. I wonder if she’ll be playing the solo today.”</p><p>Arthur shrugged as he looked at the program. “They’re not telling anyone this year. It’s all rather odd. But, Hermione’s already Concertmaster and she’s so talented.”</p><p>Jean blushed. “I don’t know where she got it from. Neither of us have ever picked up an instrument before.”</p><p>Richard grinned. “Our girl’s a genius, Jean. Now, should we sit at the front this time?”</p><p>“Actually, I think we should go sit in the balcony,” murmured Molly to her husband, as she directed his focus to the man sitting in a row just ahead of them. A few people were seated around him, but familiar faces were giving him wide berth.</p><p>Jean and Richard looked and saw a pale, bald man with paper white skin sitting in the middle of the third row from the front. He was in a crisp black suit as if he was going to be playing on stage or conducting instead of Dumbledore. They couldn’t see his face, but there were a few scars crawling down his neck before disappearing under his collar.</p><p>“What is Riddle doing here?” Arthur muttered, before he ushered the others to the side. “I think Molly’s right; the balcony would be better.”</p><p>“Who’s Riddle?” asked Jean as she allowed herself to be herded up a flight of stairs. Her husband shrugged next to her. Maybe he was a musician too? There were so many famous people in the room they didn’t recognize because they were some of the few parents who didn’t have an inkling about the music industry, unlike their companions for the evening.</p><p>Molly shook her head with a shaky smile. “Don’t worry about him. We can explain later. Much later. We better take our seats because they’ll be coming out soon.”</p><p>They ran into Sirius Black, Harry’s relatively recently freed godfather, and their friends Remus Lupin and Minerva McGonagall.</p><p>“Hello Arthur, did you see the evil lord down there as well?” Sirius drawled as his fist clenched around the crumpled program. Remus shook his head and ushered them along because they were starting to block the stairwell.</p><p>“Jean, Richard, I’m sure you’re looking forward to the performance tonight,” said McGonagall as she shook the hands of her star pupil’s parents.</p><p>“Oh, we’re very excited, Minerva. I’m glad we ran into you. Hermione said something about skipping a lesson because of her final exams. Can she make it up with you after everything is over?”</p><p>“Of course. Ah, how about these seats? I think we’ll be able to see everything from here.”</p><p>They found seats in the balcony, and Molly began to explain a little bit more about the pieces in the program. Arthur watched as the orchestra filtered onstage to take their seats and begin practicing a little bit. He frowned as a pale hand at the front of the audience held up the program and began to count the students.</p><p>Lucius Malfoy was also frowning at the sight, but relaxed when he saw his son take his seat and warm up a bit. The lights in the audience began to dim, and the hall and orchestra quieted. A door opened to stage right and a pretty brunette strode across the stage and bowed to applause. It was the Granger girl.</p><p>A couple near them began to whisper. “Richard, should we be taking a picture now?” He turned to see a couple unfamiliar faces sitting next to the Weasleys and a few other known faces in the music circle. There was Narcissa’s cousin, the frail cello teacher, and Minerva McGonagall of course. Arthur met his eyes and jerked his head towards the front of the audience with a confused expression. Lucius could only shake his head with a grimace. Who knew what Tom Riddle was doing here?</p><p>The Granger girl straightened after a short second and stepped up onto the podium. She nodded to the eldest Greengrass, who began to play the A for the the winds and then the other sections of the orchestra. The Concertmaster also tuned her instrument with the violins and nodded before sitting down next to Draco. He noticed his son shoot a smirk at his stand partner and internally groaned. He really did need to talk to Draco about professionalism, especially during a concert. Also, didn’t Dumbledore impose a ban on stand partner relationships after last year’s fiasco? He turned to ask Narcissa if their son was really dating that Granger girl, but she was already tapping his lips with a finger with a fond smile and forced him to look towards the stage.</p><p>The hall lay in stillness for a few moments before Dumbledore strode out with his long beard and uniquely shaped baton to thunderous applause. </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Welcome! This is the beginning of the last chapter of this story, and the next chapter will be where everything starts. I loved playing in my youth and high school symphony orchestra, although I wasn’t nearly as talented as our main characters. The setting is pretty timeless, but the music choices later on in the story forces this to be a modern AU. Some of my own experiences/orchestra incidents are written in, so I’d love to hear about anyone else’s musical experiences! I hope you enjoy :) </p><p>Music recommendation for this chapter (because it’s a story about music): Cambridge, 1963 by Jóhann Jóhannsson from the soundtrack to The Theory of Everything. For reference it’s played during the opening scene of the film!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. The Audition Results</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Music for this chapter: Old Friends by Howard Shore (Soundtrack for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The last note came to a stuttered stop behind the thin black curtain that divided the room in half. Albus Dumbledore finished scoring the student and clapped politely. “Thank you very much. We will be emailing out the results of the audition in a few days. Please let us know if you have any questions,” he called out so that the auditionee could hear through the curtain.</p><p>The sounds of sheet music being shuffled around and footsteps walking towards the door filtered through the thin cloth. The door had barely clicked closed before Severus Snape scoffed. “That had to have been a freshman trying to sneak their way in. I’ve never heard someone botch Bach so badly. Honestly, it’s the best youth orchestra in the city, possibly the country, and they think they have a chance? Everyone knows that it’s mainly juniors and seniors who make it in, given how competitive the process is. What a waste of time.” He took out a black pen with the forest green crest of Slytherin Preparatory and gave the student an abysmally low score.</p><p>Dumbledore turned to his friend and smiled. “Even though the audition didn’t go well, at least the student tried and gained experience. Auditions are never a waste of time.”</p><p>“Yes, well. We could have saved about ten minutes if the student had never auditioned. I've lost track of the number of auditions we’ve had over the past month,” muttered Snape as he rolled his neck.</p><p>“And thank you again for helping me out with the auditions, Severus. I know you must be busy with getting ready for your own school year.” Dumbledore flipped open a file and brought out the other audition notes they had made over the past few weeks.</p><p>Snape opened another file and pulled out more audition notes. “It’s no problem, Albus. I’ve been teaching the same students for years, and I already know the best seating arrangements. I’m sure you’ll be seeing many of them join the ranks of HYSO this year. I’m also happy to conduct any rehearsals if you have any scheduling conflicts. Now, shall we begin with the celli?”</p><p>They spent the next hour going through each section and picking who they were going to accept into the orchestra before spending more time on figuring out the best place to put everyone. The tricky ones were the first stand of the first violins and the cello section.</p><p>Dumbledore picked up the audition notes they had written for the top four musicians. “They’re all very good. I haven’t heard high school students like this in years. What do you think?”</p><p>The younger man looked at the notes on the cellists first. “Student 394 had perfect sight-reading and had very good color in their solo piece. The only thing that’s making me think Student 21 would be better is more precision. I don’t think we have any large cello solos coming up, and Student 21 might be better in leading the section.”</p><p>“That’s a good point. I think you’re right in that judgement,” replied Dumbledore before he wrote down the numbers in their respective spaces on the diagram he had already filled in for the rest of the orchestra. Only two boxes remained in the first violin section. “Alright, so Student 3 and Student 408 were the standouts amongst the violins, but we need to decide who our concertmaster will be.”</p><p>Snape looked over the results again. “We thought Student 3 would be our concertmaster for the longest time until we heard Student 408. I think there were over two hundred violinists between those two alone. I personally thought Student 3 had a much better sound and was very good at projecting and the sight-reading was the only one that was completely perfect. But Student 408 had excellent intonation and bow-stroke, possibly better technique, and there was that one tiny hiccup with the sight-reading.”</p><p>“Yes, I agree with your points. I think Student 3 is more accustomed to solo work than Student 408, but that can always be fixed rather easily for any solos. An orchestra is about learning to play together as a team.” He scanned the notes for a few more minutes before he nodded. “Let’s have Student 408 as our Concertmaster and Student 3 will be Assistant Concertmaster.”</p><p>“Very well. Shall we see who our newest members are then?” The two worked silently to pull up names and writing them in on a fresh diagram of the orchestra. They worked from the back to the front and shared what they knew of familiar names. The Weasleys caused Severus to groan, but he admitted that they deserved their spots. Slytherin Preparatory’s conductor was pleased to see how many of his students joined the ranks of Hogwarts.</p><p>Dumbledore looked as the Slytherin conductor neatly penned in Neville Longbottom’s name for the Principal bass position. “Oh, is he Frank and Alice’s son? Longbottom is not a common name.”</p><p>Nodding, Snape cracked a small and rare smile. “Yes, he’s quite talented. We were all confused when he showed up to Slytherin Preparatory with a bass in tow instead of a violin like his parents. He’s also principal at Slytherin and very reliable with helping everyone in the orchestra.”</p><p>“Excellent. It’s been a long time since I’ve talked to Augusta. I’ll be happy to see her again.” Dumbledore pulled out the names of the cello auditionees. “Oh, I forgot Harry was a high school student.”</p><p>Snape raised an eyebrow. “Do you know this Harry?”</p><p>“Harry Potter? I’m sure you remember his parents, Severus,” Dumbledore frowned as he wrote in the name in the second chair position in the cello section. “He’s the son of James Potter and Lily Evans. It says he’s only every played in the Gryffindor Middle and High School Orchestras. Oh, and it looks like Sirius Black finally became his guardian. That was all just terrible business, and I’m surprised it took this long to sort everything out.” He skimmed the notes again. “It looks like he doesn’t have a lot of experience, but he clearly has a lot of natural talent. I’m sure with a little training, he’ll surpass his parents.”</p><p>He turned to look at his friend, who had gone quite pale. “Are you alright, Severus?”</p><p>The man’s dark eyes blinked before closing as he gave a stiff nod. He cleared his throat to write another name into the first stand. “I’m fine. So, Theodore Nott is our principal cellist. He’s also naturally talented like his mother was. He looks quite like her as well, Albus.”</p><p>Dumbledore smiled. “Yes, Theodosia Nott was exceptionally talented. I look forward to meeting him. “Now for the violins.”</p><p>Cursing, Severus scrawled in names for the first stand. “Who the hell is Hermione Granger? Lucius is going to kill me when he finds out his son isn’t concertmaster.”</p><p> “It says she’s also in the Gryffindor High School Orchestra,” Dumbledore remarked with a small chuckle, “it looks like Arthur has some gems in his Junior class. Her audition was quite excellent and the two of them together are going to be wonderful in leading the Orchestra. I’m sure Lucius will be fine, Severus. I assume Draco’s going to be the Slytherin concertmaster?”</p><p>“Yes, of course. The boy has more talent than the rest of the violin section combined,” muttered Snape. “I just won’t show up for the first rehearsal and avoid Lucius during the parent rotation night in a couple weeks.”</p>
<hr/><p>The bell rang, and Mr. Weasley just sighed as everyone rushed out of the rehearsal room. Most of the kids had been eyeing the clock and sneakily packing up ahead of time. At least his children resisted from fleeing as quickly as possible to make it to lunch. Well, at least Ron had friends to stop him. He grinned at the four students who were slowly packing up and chatting.</p><p>“I hear congratulations are in order, you four. I think it’s a first that four students from Gryffindor High School were accepted into the Hogwarts Youth Symphony Orchestra. Aren’t you glad that I convinced you to audition?” he asked as he closed the score they had been working on.</p><p>Ron just rolled his eyes. “Dad, I really don’t see why you want us to do it. It’s just going to take time out of everything, and the orchestra is going to be full of Slytherin Prep snobs anyways.”</p><p>His father stared at him sternly. “You know Bill and Charlie were Slytherin Prep snobs. Anyways, just because Fred and George decided not to accept their spots two years ago, doesn’t mean it is pointless. It’s the best youth orchestra, and it will help you play better.”</p><p>Ginny was grinning. “It’ll be fun to play harder music. Plus, at least we made it in, Ron!”</p><p>Her brother just snorted as he packed up. “That’s because we’re violists, Gin. And we don’t suck as much as the other violists.”</p><p>Harry just spun his cello as he watched the siblings. “Do you know what chairs we got, Mr. Weasley? Sirius is really excited about it.”</p><p>The orchestra director just shook his head. “Dumbledore just sent me the list of students who made it in. You’ll have to wait until the pre-rehearsal in a couple days to figure out where you’ll be and what music you’ll be playing.”</p><p>Hermione tucked a stray curl behind her ear and smiled at her best friend. “How is living with Sirius going?” Harry had just moved in with his godfather the previous weekend after all the custody arrangements had been finalized.</p><p>The green eyes brightened as Harry reached into his backpack. “It’s great! He’s so much better than the Dursleys, and it’s great that he’s finally been cleared of all charges. I still can’t believe people thought he was so jealous of the other musicians that he rigged the fireworks display at the Halloween Concert. But look, he managed to find the old program for that concert with my parents.” Harry pulled out a faded booklet and held it out on a dog-eared page.</p><p>Everyone crowded around to see a picture of a full orchestra and a list of names beside it. A handsome dark-haired man stood in the middle with a large smirk on his face.</p><p>“Who’s that?” Hermione didn’t know much about older musicians, even though Harry’s parents had been talented cellists who had toured the world with Dumbledore’s Orchestra.</p><p>Mr. Weasley let out a low whistle and leaned closer. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen this particular Orchestra.” He pointed at the middle man. “This is Tom Riddle. He was a very promising conductor and many thought he would join the likes of Grindlewald and Dumbledore in leading the top symphonies. He had some unconventional ideas though, and some thought his concerts were dangerous.”</p><p>Hermione frowned. “Dangerous? How can conducting be dangerous?”</p><p>Mr. Weasley tapped the program. “This concert was featured in a national broadcast on Halloween, and it was supposed to be Tom Riddle’s crowning glory. He was famous for fancy stagework like fake snow falling on the orchestra and staging concerts in the wilderness. Some members of this particular performance claimed it was going to be dangerous with fireworks and went public. There were quite a few, like the Potters, Longbottoms, and the Prewetts.” He tapped the names as he went. “None of them were originally a part of Riddle’s Symphony, and they played for Dumbledore. But a few members had to pull out for various reasons and they were called in because it was going to be nationally televised.”</p><p>Harry was frowning, and Hermione realized that the freak accident Harry’s parents had died in was connected to Sirius Black being wrongfully imprisoned all these years. She had never heard the story before. Having met her friends on the first day of sixth grade in a brand new city, she had never pried into the recent changes in Harry’s life.</p><p>“Well, something did go wrong with this performance, and the fireworks caused an explosion. It injured quite a few of the members, but it killed the Potters and Prewett twins. People thought it was rather suspicious because they had been the ones to go public and spread the word that the performances were dangerous for the musicians. The Longbottoms have been in a coma for years, and the whole thing was a national disaster. All of you kids are much too young to remember it,” murmured Mr. Weasley as he closed the program.</p><p>Harry managed a weak smile and pulled the program back into his bag. “I still can’t believe no one told me about it until last year. You should have seen it, Mr. Weasley. A bunch of kids freaked out at me last year at Regionals when they saw my name tag.”</p><p>Mr. Weasley sighed. “I’m sorry about that, Harry. We thought you knew when you showed up in middle school and told Molly in music class that you wanted to learn how to play the cello. We all assumed, Remus included, that your aunt and uncle told you everything.”</p><p>Harry shrugged. “It’s not your fault my relatives kept me in the dark. At least I know now, and I get to live with Sirius instead.”</p><p>“What happened to Tom Riddle?” asked Hermione, still perturbed that someone thought fireworks on stage with wooden instruments was a good idea.</p><p>“He was injured, but he survived. I don’t think anyone’s seen him since then. Some people think he went abroad, but no one really knows,” replied Mr. Weasley. “You’ll miss lunch if you lot don’t leave soon. And Ron, Ginny, you better practice before your lesson today. I know you two haven’t done anything after the auditions.”</p>
<hr/><p>Hermione looked at the clock and put down her violin. It was a few minutes to 4:30, and they should really be going if they wanted to make it to the Weasley house on time. She quickly packed away her violin and music before shrugging her arms through the straps so she could carry the case on her back.</p><p>She locked the music room door with the key Mr. Weasley had given her and made her way through the silent hallways to the soccer field. The boys were playing around to stay in practice during the off-season because neither of them played club soccer. She spotted Ginny making her way towards them and waved. “Are you guys ready? We’ll be late for lessons if we don’t leave now.”</p><p>Ron and Harry grabbed the ball they had been playing with and slung their backpacks over their shoulder. “Let’s go.” She wrinkled her nose at their sweaty clothes and was glad she only had to survive a fifteen minute car ride and not an hour-long lesson with them.</p><p>She turned away and walked in step with Ginny to the school parking lot. “How was your day, Gin?”</p><p>The pretty redhead grinned at her. “It was great. Although I do hate Algebra. Can you help me with it in the car?”</p><p>“Of course, Gin,” Hermione replied as they arrived at the old blue Ford Angelina that the Weasley siblings shared. It was a tight fit, but they managed to squeeze their backpacks and Ron’s viola in the trunk. Harry’s cello, affectionately named Hedwig, went in the front seat next to Ron, while the others piled in the back with Hermione and Ginny’s instruments lying across their laps.</p><p>They spent the whole car ride arguing about what music to listen to, and Hermione had wanted classical to the groans of everyone else, but they managed to make it to the Weasley’s house in time for their five o’clock lessons.</p><p>They managed to unpack the car as a thin man with brown hair walked up the street with a tired grin. “Hello you lot. Harry, have you practiced?”</p><p>Harry grinned. “Hi Remus! Of course, I did. I can’t believe you would doubt your star pupil.”</p><p>Remus Lupin laughed. “I did hear that the four of you got into HYSO. Congratulations. Although, if you let the excitement of getting in get to your head and forgot to practice, I’m going to make you do some very painful exercises.”</p><p>The star pupil in question gulped and quickly followed his teacher into the house. Ginny looked at her phone. “Ron, dad’s going to teach you first, but he’ll be here in ten minutes. I’m going to go grab a shower before my lesson.”</p><p>Ron grinned. “Great, just enough time for a snack. Hermione do you want one?” as they walked into the Weasley house that also doubled as a music studio where students took lessons.</p><p>She shook her head with a smile. “No thanks, Ron. I think Professor McGonagall is already here.”</p><p>A door on the second floor opened above them. “Miss Granger? Come in, dear. Let’s get started.”</p><p>Hermione waved goodbye to her friend and smiled at her teacher. “Good afternoon Professor McGonagall.” She put her case down on the piano bench in the room and began to unpack.</p><p>The older woman’s usually stern expression gave way to a small smile. “Congratulations, Hermione. I’m very proud that you got in, and Dumbledore will be a great conductor to play under this year.”</p><p>Adjusting her shoulder rest, Hermione nodded excitedly, “I’m really looking forward to playing. I would even be happy with being last chair if I get to finally play in a symphonic orchestra.”</p><p>Minerva McGonagall shook her head with a frown. “I tried to get you to audition last year, but you were too nervous to try out. And you’re much better than you think you are, my dear. You placed quite high in the Regionals orchestra last year, and you would’ve been higher if it wasn’t for your sight-reading.”</p><p>Hermione cringed as she grabbed her sheet music. “I really don’t like sight-reading.”</p><p>McGonagall tutted. “Well, they’re releasing the audition passages for the first round of Regionals auditions, so we can practice sight-reading today. Let’s start with some scales.”</p><p>Groaning, Hermione dutifully held up her violin to her neck and began to tune.</p>
<hr/><p>Hermione thanked Sirius and Harry for the ride home and let herself into her apartment. Not taking the bus meant she had beaten her parents home. She dropped off her violin and backpack in her room before going to the kitchen and beginning to heat up leftovers for dinner.</p><p>Just as she was pulling things off the stove, the door opened to the soft voices of her parents. Her mom grinned at her as she peeked through the kitchen door. “Hello, darling. How was your day?” She helped Hermione carry things to the table and grabbed utensils.</p><p>“It was good. Professor McGonagall wants me to wait another week before starting another piece. Oh, and I have a pre-rehearsal next week.” She pulled out the printed email of rehearsal dates from her pocket and set it on the table.</p><p>Richard Granger walked through the door and wrapped Hermione up in a hug. “Right, my daughter, the musician, made it into something wonderful.”</p><p>Hermione giggled. “I still don’t think you know exactly what I’m going to be doing.”</p><p>Her dad shrugged. “We might just be dentists who know nothing about music, but we’re very proud of you, dear.” He sat down at the table and looked at his phone. “Your mom and I are going to need to stay at the volunteer clinic late for the next week. Will you be alright?”</p><p>“Of course. I’m going to the pre-rehearsal with my friends, so I should be fine.” Hermione grinned at her parents as she put her dinner plate together. Her parents were busy with their own private practice and donated most of their time and money to volunteer work, but they still tried to understand her passion of music and see all of her performances. She couldn’t wait until they saw her play at the fancy Hogsmeade Center for the Arts. She had only been a couple times with the Weasleys and on school field trips, but she was looking forward to finally playing on the stage.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Wow I didn't expect people to read this story! Thank you for the lovely comments and kudos! I really don't like the way the beginning of my stories work out (lots of setup sigh), but we'll start to get into the plot soon! And if you're here from It's a Matter of, welcome back and I hope you enjoy! </p><p>Next chapter: The pre-rehearsal and welcoming the lovely students of Slytherin Preparatory</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. The Pre-Rehearsal</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Music recommendation for this chapter: Unlocking the Mind by Samuel Bohn (from the trailer for The Theory of Everything)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The Hogsmeade Center for the Arts had ridiculous parking fees. Not that she had her license yet or a car, but this meant that they had to catch an early bus for the pre-rehearsal. Orchestras are notorious for being ruthless to any latecomers, and Hermione naturally liked to be early to everything.  </p><p>She and Harry followed a bickering Ron and Ginny, who were trying to figure out if Ginny could’ve beaten Ron in seating arrangements, to the prettiest building in all of Hogsmeade. The Hogwarts Symphony Orchestra played in a large castle-like building that was part museum and part performance hall. Hermione had only been a few times before to hear the Symphony play around the holidays or school field trips, but she wished Gryffindor High School had this kind of architecture. They found themselves in a lobby after going through security, but then had no idea of where to go.</p><p>“Now what?” she whispered in the vast empty lobby. The others shrugged as they tried the locked doors that people would typically stream through to watch the Hogwarts Symphony Orchestra play. There was no one else around, and the security guard looked bored as he sat eating a sandwich at the front desk.</p><p>“Harry?” A voice called from a hallway to their left and they turned to see a tall boy carefully rolling a bass towards them. He looked vaguely familiar to Hermione, but she never remembered seeing someone taller than Ron.</p><p>Harry frowned before he blinked. “Neville?” Hermione’s jaw dropped. There was no way this tall good-looking boy was the same as short round and sweet Neville Longbottom who had transferred schools after sixth grade.</p><p>Neville grinned. “Hi Hermione, Ron, Ginny. It’s nice to see you guys! Are you guys also in HYSO?” He pulled up in front of them and just managed to catch his bass before it tipped over.</p><p>“Yes, we are. Wow, Neville. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen you. How’s Slytherin Prep?” Ron still looked surprised but clapped his free hand across Neville’s back.</p><p>“It’s pretty good, I mean we don’t have to wear uniforms like the other private schools. Although, all of the guys basically dress the same. They have a great music department even if our director is pretty strict. I actually saw you guys at Regionals last year, but Harry looked like he was terrified the entire time, Hermione was glued to her laptop during breaks, and Ron, you were always with a sandwich,” laughed Neville.</p><p>Hermione blushed. “Sorry, I had an important paper due before the concert. It is really nice to see you, Neville. By the way, do you know where we’re supposed to go?”</p><p>Nodding, Neville pointed at the large concert doors. “Our rehearsals are in the main concert hall unless there’s a performance, in which case we’re in the back room. I can show you guys. They won’t unlock these doors until closer to rehearsal time.” He adjusted his bass and wheeled them to a side door and down a long hallway.</p><p>“Were you in the orchestra last year, Neville?” Ginny asked as the boy confidently led them through a few doors.</p><p>He laughed. “No, they don’t take many sophomores. Congratulations, Ginny! But Gran is a patron of the Center, and she’s always trying to introduce me to people who knew my parents. I’ve been backstage quite a bit. Also, there’s always more than a few Slytherin upperclassmen who make it into the Orchestra and the seniors tell the new members a few things.”</p><p>Neville led them down one more hallway and into a large room that could have easily fit another symphonic orchestra. “There are some lockers, but they get filled up really quickly and sometimes Symphony people leave their instruments or belongings here if they need a safe place to keep anything. This is the rehearsal space if the stage is in use and before concerts for last-minute adjustments. It’s probably easiest to unpack here. We probably won’t play anything because it’s the pre-rehearsal meeting, but you never know.”</p><p>He had just finished speaking when a few other students began to filter in. From the way they were talking, they seemed to be returning members and were most likely seniors. Hermione heard more than a few complaining how Dumbledore seemed to like having juniors lead the Orchestra. She quickly unpacked her violin and walked over to Neville who had just pulled out his bass. “Neville, do you know when we find out what stand we are?”</p><p>He grinned. “Yeah, it’ll be on the rehearsal door. I wanted to wait for more people to get out of the way, but we can go check out our seats now. You won’t know what chair you’ll be until you get to your stand though. The folders will be on your chairs with names and numbers on them.”</p><p>They collected Harry and the Weasleys as more people filtered into the room. Most people were quiet and talking with a few friends, but it looked like the seniors from different high schools were going around and chatting about their summers and if this year could be better than the last.</p><p>There was a small crowd jostling around a piece of paper taped to the door, but most people quickly scanned the page before leaving. Hermione found herself at the front and started looking from the bottom of the second violins and ended with a Blaise Zabini and Susan Bones on the first stand. She did the same for the first violins and was shocked to see her name at the top right above a Draco Malfoy. “I’m first stand?” she squeaked and almost dropped her violin.</p><p>Harry let out a surprised laugh. “We all are. What is going on?”</p><p>Neville grinned as he proudly looked at his own name. “It means we’re all talented. Hogwarts is famous for doing blind auditions, and it’s surprised more than a few people in the past. You all have really talented stand partners too. Draco and Theo both go to Slytherin with me and are concertmaster and principal cellist this year.”</p><p>Ron and Ginny had both made first stand, which started another wave of bickering over who would get to be principal. They were both two of the best violists in the state, but never tried hard for Regionals in the past couple years. But it looked like they had actually tried to do their best for the Hogwarts Auditions, and it had paid off.</p><p>Ginny flipped her long red hair over one shoulder and gave her brother one last dirty look. “Let’s just go find our seats and settle this once and for all.”</p><p>Hermione followed the others onto the stage through a side door and gulped. The stage lights weren’t as bright as they were during concerts, so she could see every seat in the audience. There were hundreds of soft red seats, and the thought of playing in front of that many people made her gulp. The concert hall had golden ceilings and walls, bathing the stage in a soft glow. She saw Neville and Harry take their seats after finding their folders. Neville was principal and Harry was Assistant Principal. Ginny had managed to get principal over Ron, and was grinning in triumph while Ron just slumped in his seat and leaned his head on the scroll of his viola.</p><p>Other students were making their way onto the stage and excitedly finding their seats, and Hermione wove around a few empty cello seats and walked along the edge of the stage. The narrow strip of the wooden floor felt enormous, and she knew she would have to make this walk several times to tune the orchestra at the beginning of rehearsals and concerts. She passed by the empty podium and stood just before the stand. Taking a deep breath, she walked closer to look at the folders on the two black chairs.</p><p>The one closest to her had her name stamped across the front with a large 1 next to it. It was official. She was Concertmaster of the Hogwarts Youth Symphony Orchestra.</p><p>“Well? What’d you get, Hermione?” called out a grinning Harry who was standing at his seat a few feet away. They were only separated by the podium, but it would be hard for her to see him during rehearsal.</p><p>She felt an excited grin break across her face, and she pulled out the folder and sank into her assigned seat.</p><p>“Nice Hermione!” exclaimed Ginny, and Ron gave a loud whoop.</p><p>Harry was smiling at her proudly and lifted his bow into the air. “Long live Concertmaster Hermione Granger,” he shouted to the laughs and incredulous looks of the other few orchestra members trickling on stage. Hermione recognized a few from Regionals the previous year, but she didn’t know very many names.</p><p>Hermione blushed and tightened her hold on her violin. This was not how she wanted to start off her pre-rehearsal practice and would have much rather enjoyed some amount of obscurity, but she did have great friends. Shaking her head, she began to flip through the folder she placed on the stand.</p><p>There were two packets of music. Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony was the first one, and she felt her grin grow wider. She had always wanted to play this piece, but Mr. Weasley had never given into her requests because of the length and complexity of the symphony. The next one was Mozart’s Symphony No. 27 K. 199. She was decently familiar with the pretty Symphony, and she gave a satisfied sigh. Thank goodness Mr. Weasley and Professor McGonagall had convinced her to audition this year. Not only had she somehow made Concertmaster, but she got to play two amazing pieces she might not have had the chance to play until possibly college.</p><p>Hermione had just finished flipping through the pages when she realized that people were whispering and shooting her confused looks. Then she noticed that all the boys were nicely dressed in collared shirts and no one was wearing jeans. The girls were all wearing makeup and fashionable clothing. She was suddenly very aware of her worn jeans and old gray tank top with Gryffindor proudly printed on the front. Her once white and dirty converse nervously slid under her chair as she hurriedly immersed herself in the music again.</p><p>This was the best youth orchestra in the country, so of course it attracted privileged students from prestigious schools where everyone dressed nicely. She was going to have to get up in front of everyone to tune the orchestra. Groaning, Hermione fervently hoped that they wouldn’t play today and resolved to dress up a bit next week for their first rehearsal. She had never wanted to stick out, but she couldn’t avoid at least some of the spotlight by being Concertmaster.</p><p>The empty black seats were beginning to be filled, and the sound of people idly playing some of the music filtered through the air. The rest of the inner circle of stands were quickly occupied, but the seat beside her remained empty. Hermione looked up and saw a dark-haired boy who looked quite a bit like Harry, but was dressed in an expensive looking dark green collared shirt and carried himself with a confidence only money and talent could bring, carrying a beautiful cello towards his stand. His hair was also significantly neater. This must be Theodore Nott. He introduced himself to Harry and they shook hands. Hermione noticed he seemed a little surprised at hearing his stand partner’s name and wondered if this would be a repeat of Regionals.</p><p>A tall old man with a very long white beard crossed the stage and smiled. He stopped at the podium with a thin folder and small long box in hand. A hush fell over the members, but Albus Dumbledore just smiled and waved his hand, indicating that there was still time until rehearsal began. People began to speak softly again, and the noise quickly rose. He opened his folder and turned to Hermione with a kind look. “Hello, Miss Granger. It is lovely to officially meet you.”</p><p>Hermione managed to smile as she became fully aware that she was sitting in front of one of the most famous conductors in the past century. “Hello, Sir. It’s lovely to meet you as well.”</p><p>He nodded and began to say hello to the other students sitting in the first stands. Hermione looked around as he did so and smiled at Susan Bones who was the Assistant Principal for the Second Violins. They had briefly met at Regionals the previous year. There was a handsome boy with amber eyes sitting as Principal. This must be Blaise Zabini.</p><p>Hermione nodded at him, but he just stared at her for a few seconds with surprised eyes before looking away. Confused, Hermione resolved to focus on the music. She already had her friends in the orchestra. It wasn’t like she needed to become friends with everyone here.</p><p>Dumbledore was looking at his watch as he made his way towards Neville and then onto the members of the band. Hermione glanced at her own watch. Rehearsal was supposed to start in two minutes. She was just wondering if her stand partner was ever going to show up when someone cleared their throat to her right and a shadow fell over her.</p><p>Hermione looked up to see a handsome boy with white blond hair and sparkling gray eyes looking down at her with a small smirk. An eyebrow was raised and there was a hint of amusement in his eyes.</p><p>“Hello. I believe you’re in my seat.” A faint waft of cologne drifted towards her as he gestured with his gorgeous violin. The scent wasn’t overpowering, but smelled of money and privilege. It wasn't bad. It just wasn't anything she was used to.</p><p>She swallowed. Even if Neville hadn’t mentioned that he went to school with Draco Malfoy, she would’ve known he belonged in Slytherin Preparatory. His hair was styled in a way that looked effortless, and he was wearing a light blue button up shirt that no one could pay Harry or Ron to wear. His slacks looked like they were ironed, and he was wearing loafers. High school boys didn’t wear loafers unless they went to a private school.</p><p>Hermione felt her body automatically begin to get up with an apology but caught herself. “Are you Draco Malfoy?”</p><p>His smirk grew a bit. “Yes, I am.” His voice was like velvet and deep enough to indicate that he had certainly passed puberty.</p><p>Nodding, she took a deep breath and nervously gripped the neck of her violin a little tighter. “Well, you’re Assistant Concertmaster, so that’s your seat,” she pointed at the empty chair to her left but trailed off as his brow began to furrow.</p><p>Any hint of amusement instantly disappeared along with his smirk. His gray eyes hardened and he leaned closer. “What are you talking about?”</p><p>Hermione had just lowered her hand from pointing to the folder with his name and the number 2 stamped across the front when Dumbledore strode up to the podium. The concert hall instantly fell silent, but Dumbledore looked over at the first stand and the still standing Draco Malfoy. “Is there a problem?”</p><p>Soon, all eyes were on them, and Hermione wanted to disappear into her chair. This was definitely not how she had wanted to start rehearsal.</p><p>A look of fury appeared on Malfoy’s face as he took a second to look from his folder to her folder that was currently on the stand. He whirled to face Dumbledore, another waft of cologne floating towards her as he shifted. “Yes, sir. There is a problem. Who the hell is this and why is she in my seat? There is no way I could be Assistant Concertmaster.”</p><p>Dumbledore merely smiled. “Excellent segue, Mr. Malfoy. And, I do need to grab something from the back.” He clapped his hands even though the orchestra was already silent and spoke in a slightly louder voice. “Welcome everyone. I’m glad to see our returning students and the new Juniors and rare Sophomores. Now, before we get started, I want you to introduce yourselves to your stand partner and become well acquainted. You will be together for the rest of the year. I’ll give you five minutes while I go grab something I forgot.” He stepped off the podium and strode towards the back door, as everyone began to talk to the person next to them.</p><p>Hermione pushed her chair back slightly and waited a minute before Malfoy elegantly slid into his seat. She bit her lip nervously as she watched him give a hard glare at her folder and then turn to face her. A vicious sneer was on his lips. “Granger? I’ve never heard of any musicians with that last name.”</p><p>Blinking, she raised an eyebrow. “Were you supposed to?”</p><p>He scoffed and gestured behind him towards the rest of the orchestra. “Most of us have parents who are world-class musicians. I don’t understand what you’re doing here or how you managed to get that seat.” He appraised her from her messy bun that barely held her hair straight back down to her dirty converse. His lip curled as he read her tank top. “Gryffindor High School? That explains why I’ve never seen you before.”</p><p>Hermione felt a delayed sense of fury rising up in her. “What does that mean?”</p><p>He looked bored as elegantly balanced his violin and bow in one hand before flipping through the sheet music. “I mean, I’ve only ever gone to Slytherin Preparatory, except for my year abroad at Beauxbatons Academy. I know a few people who go to The Ravenclaw School and The Hufflepuff Independent Day School, but I didn’t even know Gryffindor had an orchestra, and you need to be in your school orchestra to play for HYSO.”</p><p>Dumbledore was back on the podium before she could reply, and Hermione straightened to turn her attention to him. She was gritting her teeth and wondered if it would be inappropriate to strangle her stand partner before their first rehearsal. No, she could do this. It was an amazing opportunity, and she could survive not talking to her stand partner for a year.</p><p>“Welcome everyone,” Dumbledore called out to the quickly quiet orchestra. “I am always so happy to see a new orchestra with so many young faces. Think of the magic we can make! After all, music is the closest thing to magic we have in the world.” He smiled and Hermione felt herself relax. His words were true. When she played, it felt like she was performing magic. She noticed her stand partner’s lip twitch upwards into a brief smile at the words from the corner of her eye. Maybe he wouldn’t be so bad?</p><p>Dumbledore took a moment to scan the orchestra members before continuing. “I am proud of all of you for your talents and dedication to this art, and I am sure we will have a wonderful year. Now, for some housekeeping and the point of this pre-rehearsal. It appears that all of you have made it, so I will expect all of you to be here on time. You have one excused absence for the year, and I will not condone tardiness. This will be good practice for those of you who aim to play in college orchestras and professional orchestras. All of you are to be in your seats with your instrument, sheet music, and pencil when rehearsal is scheduled to begin.” He looked over his glasses at the sheet in front of him.</p><p>“The hall is ours to use when the Hogwarts Symphony is not using it. We can be in the back room if they need to use the stage for any reason. You are all welcome to use the practice rooms and space whenever you would like, but only if it is already not in use. You must give it up if someone from the Symphony comes in.”</p><p>Hermione perked up at that. She could play here whenever she wanted to? This was going to be much better than practicing in the Hogwarts music room. She could just imagine how wonderful the music would sound in a space dedicated to creating beautiful music.</p><p>Dumbledore continued to read off of the sheet. “The concert cycle for this year will be a Fall concert, Winter concert, and Spring concert. The Fall concert is in a couple months, which is why the repertoire is short. The Concerto Competition will be held a month before the Spring concert.” Everyone sat up when he said that and he smiled as he looked up. “The winner of the Concerto Competition will of course play a concerto of his or her choice at the Spring Concert. The winner last year was Cedric Diggory, and I hear he’s looking forward to starting his first year at Julliard.”</p><p>Hermione swallowed as she looked at the other eager members of the Orchestra. Winning the Concerto Competition would be the ticket to all of her dreams. The winner played at the biggest concert put on by the Orchestra, and tickets were always sold out. Winning the Concerto Competition was enough to get you into any university or conservatory in the country, and many famous world-class musicians had won it in the past. If she was Concertmaster, did that mean she had a good chance at winning it? Then she remembered a violinist hadn’t won the competition in years. Cedric Diggory had been an oboist, and a cellist named Oliver Wood had won it the year prior. Maybe that would change this year. She realized Draco Malfoy had a vicious smirk on his face and quickly turned to focus on Dumbledore again. At the very least, she would try to beat Draco Malfoy and any other Slytherin snob who auditioned.</p><p>Dumbledore ran his finger down the piece of paper before clearing his throat. “Oh, and one more rule we’ve added this year due to an incident last year. I do request that stand partners do not date. There was a pretty spectacular break-up in the middle of a rehearsal last year, and we cannot have distractions while we practice.” A few members of the Seniors grimaced, and Hermione wondered exactly what had happened as the conductor continued to speak. “If it’s true love, you can survive one year without dating your stand partner. If there is a couple, we will reassign stands and move both of you to a different stand.” He paused, but no one came forward.</p><p>Draco snorted and Hermione felt a little offended, but she also rolled her eyes. There was no way she would ever date the boy besides her. She turned around to look at the reactions of the other first violins and noticed that the third violinist had a predatory gleam in her eyes. Her name was Romilda Vane if Hermione remembered the sheet from earlier correctly.</p><p>Hermione quickly turned back around. There was no way she was giving up her seat. Especially now that Draco Malfoy had called her out in front of the entire orchestra. No, she was definitely going to show them that she deserved this seat over any prep school kid with an expensive violin.</p><p>Dumbledore clapped his hands again. “Now, that’s everything for today. Although, I see that many of you brought your instruments with you. Let’s play a bit to warm up before we start next week.” He opened the long box on the podium and removed a baton that was simpler than one might imagine of a retired world-class conductor. “I know we couldn’t bring in a few of the larger band instruments today, so I think we’ll just play the Mozart for a bit. Anyone besides the strings, flutes, and horns are welcome to stay and listen but you are otherwise dismissed. Oh, but Miss Greengrass, do stay to tune the A for us. I think just a quick tuning will be enough” He smiled at a pretty blonde girl, who nodded and adjusted her oboe, before turning to look at Hermione. “I just want to get through as much as we can, and we only have a couple minutes left. I think we can save your first tuning until next week?”</p><p>Hermione nodded with a smile. She would definitely be prepared to tune the orchestra next week. Everyone who played in the Mozart quickly took out the music and arranged their instruments, and everyone who didn’t play just remained in their seats, probably to hear exactly how good it would sound being sight-read. She hated sight-reading, but at least she knew how the piece sounded so it would be a bit easier.</p><p>Hearing the A from the oboe, Hermione tuned her instrument and glanced over to see Malfoy tuning as well, but not moving to remove the sheet music from his folder. It was always the inside person’s job to take care of the music and flip pages. Even after they had finished tuning, he didn’t move to take care of their music. She sighed and opened her folder to pull out the music, but resolved that she wouldn’t be flipping any pages. She was Concertmaster, and even if she didn’t go to some fancy prep school or have musicians as parents, she knew that the inside player flipping pages was the standard in all orchestras. Dumbledore tapped his baton to give the tempo, which was a tad slower than concert speed given that they were sight-reading before starting them off.</p><p>After the second measure, Hermione realized that the Gryffindor Orchestra was ruined for her forever. The powerful sound and beautiful melody of a full Orchestra of students who really knew how to play was beautiful. It was even better than the Regionals Orchestra had been last year. Once they got to the part where they repeated the previous measures, she had fully relaxed and grinned as she played. This was going to be great.</p><p>They were nearing the end of the page turn, and Hermione counted out the eight measures of rest they had. There was more than enough time for Malfoy to flip the page, but he didn’t move. Hermione turned to look at him, and he was just looking back at her with a raised eyebrow. Hermione reached count seven and began to panic. What was she supposed to do if he didn’t flip the page? Should she just flip it? No. If she gave in during a pre-rehearsal, she might find herself being the first Concertmaster to be do the page turns during an actual concert.</p><p>He didn’t even pick up his violin from rest position. Hermione knew the music was repetitive, but she wasn’t sure how similar the ending of the piece was to the beginning. She raised an eyebrow back at him as the eighth measure quickly passed. Two could play that game. Besides, what was the point of being Concertmaster if she didn’t have a reliable stand partner. Hopefully Dumbledore would understand. If not, well she never expected to be Concertmaster anyways. Maybe Romilda Vane wouldn’t have to wait for any impossible romance scandal before becoming Concertmaster.</p><p>The rest of the first violins stuttered disjointedly behind them, as some had been relying on the first stand to pick up their violins to cue everyone in while others had just counted on their own and entered. The rest of the Orchestra faltered as the music grew softer without the first violins. A few continued to play while watching Dumbledore’s still moving baton, but others gaped as they stared at the silent first violin section.</p><p>Dumbledore lowered his baton with a chuckle, and Hermione sheepishly looked up to meet twinkling blue eyes. “Well, I do suppose that we are at the end of the pre-rehearsal. First violins, please play until I stop next time.” He looked over at them with an amused expression. “I expected something like this of the violas, but not my first violins.”</p><p>The rest of the orchestra snickered at the violas’ expense, but they were all used to it and just shook their heads. Hermione thought they were just happy that they got the melody line in the latter half of the Allegro.</p><p>Dumbledore organized his papers and nodded as he put his baton back in its box. “I think this will be a fine year. Dismissed, and I will see all of you next week.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thank you for the lovely comments and the kudos! Please let me know if you have any questions about any musical elements (or if I make any mistakes)!!<br/>I hope you enjoy this chapter and have a great week!!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. A War Begins</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Music recommendation: One Last Shot by Klaus Badelt from Pirates of the Caribbean</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Hermione closed her eyes and counted to five. When she opened them, she realized it wasn’t a dream. She really was the Concertmaster of the Hogwarts Youth Symphony Orchestra, and her stand partner was a monster. Really, what person wouldn’t turn the page if they were sitting on the inside. He was a monster, and there was nothing else she could do. She was screwed for this season.</p><p>A low chuckle came from her left and she looked up to see the principal second violinist grinning down at her with very white teeth. “Well isn’t this interesting, Draco. It looks like someone stole your rightful throne.” Blaise Zabini was tall, dark, and handsome. He had to be another Slytherin Prep student. Why were there so many in this Orchestra? He held out his hand to her with a charming smile. “I’m Blaise Zabini. It’s very nice to make your acquaintance, Miss Granger.” Hermione shook it and was a little impressed by his firm handshake.</p><p>She looked over to see Malfoy glaring at his friend. “Shouldn’t you be complaining Blaise? You’ve been kicked over to the land of the second violins. I don’t think you should be gloating right now.”</p><p>Harry’s stand partner, Theodore Nott had wandered over amidst the crowd of students rushing to pack up and go eat dinner. As he drew closer, Hermione realized she would never mix him up with her best friend. Theodore Nott was taller than Harry and was more built than her slight best friend. Did they have special lunches at Slytherin Prep or something?</p><p>He gave Hermione a small smile and held out his hand as well. “Theo Nott, at your service.” He looked over to Malfoy and his smile grew as she shook his hand. “I’m glad someone can beat you. Your head’s gotten even bigger while we were in France. Now, you’ll have a reason to practice.”</p><p>Her blond stand partner actually growled as he picked up his folder. The pretty blonde oboist had also joined their little circle. Hermione groaned. Why were they all so attractive and well-dressed? The girl gave her a small smile as she walked forward, and Theo automatically wrapped his arm around her thin waist. “Hello, I’m Daphne Greengrass. I don’t believe we’ve met,” she said as she gave a friendly smile.</p><p>Swallowing, Hermione introduced herself and watched as Daphne Greengrass leaned into Theo and laughed. “Oh, it’s so wonderful to see Draco with some competition. Well, I guess I’ll be helping you tune for the rest of the season.”</p><p>She managed to nod and bit her lip. Would it be awkward if she just left? None of them looked like they were moving anytime soon. Thankfully, a tan arm waving a black folder cut through the circle of Slytherins. “Hermione! Are you ready to go? Ron’s complaining about starving again.” She had never been so happy to see Harry’s messy hair flopping over his face.</p><p>She stood up and grabbed her folder. “Yes, I’m ready to leave.”</p><p>Blaise was staring at the folder in Harry’s hand and did a double take as he looked at her best friend. “Oh, you’re a Potter?”</p><p>Theo laughed and nodded. “As soon as I saw his name on the sheet, I thought I was going to be second chair.”</p><p>Harry’s friendly smile slid off his face. “Yes, I’m Harry Potter. Is there a problem?”</p><p>Daphne took in his Gryffindor t-shirt and gasped, “Oh, he goes to Gryffindor. That explains why none of us have seen him before.” She gave him a shy smile. “My parents always wondered where you were.”</p><p>“Okay, Hermione. Let’s leave now,” muttered Harry as his face flushed. Hermione slid out between Theo and her chair to follow Harry across the stage.</p><p>Malfoy snorted and stood up as well behind them. “Well, the mystery of the lost Potter has been solved and obviously Dumbledore can’t make good seating decisions. Wait until Professor Snape hears about this.”</p><p>Ron and Ginny were laughing at something Neville said in the empty back room. Hermione knelt down next to her case and quickly packed. The trio wandered over and Ginny grinned down at her. “What did you do that made the entire orchestra fall apart?”</p><p>Groaning, Hermione rolled her neck and looked up at four curious faces. “Neville, who the hell is Draco Malfoy and why does he refuse to flip the page even though he’s on the inside?”</p><p>Four pairs of eyes widened, and Neville let out a nervous laugh. “Draco’s one of the best violinists I’ve seen, and he isn’t that bad of a person. He’s just a little snobby because of his family.”</p><p>Harry looked at him. “Do they all know about musician families? They all seemed to know who I was just based on my last name. It was actually worse than Regionals.”</p><p>Nodding, their old friend thought for a second. “A lot of the top players have reasonably famous parents. Theo’s mother, Draco’s father, and Daphne’s father played in Tom Riddle’s Orchestra way back when. I think Draco’s dad was like third chair and his mother is a retired concert pianist. Blaise’s mother is a famous opera singer from Italy.” He let out a small laugh. “They all made a big fuss when I turned up at Slytherin Preparatory, so I’m sure they were surprised to see you. The Potters were the most famous cellists of our parents’ generation.”</p><p>Neville checked his watch and grimaced. “I have to run and have dinner with my grandmother. Are you guys heading to the parking lot?”</p><p>Ron huffed. “The parking here is so expensive. We took the bus instead.”</p><p>“Oh, HYSO members get a parking pass. It should be in your folders behind the music,” replied Neville with a grin. He took his bass and began to wheel it out the door. “I’ll see you next week! I’m glad I get to play with you guys again.”</p><p>They called their goodbyes, and Hermione shrugged her arms through the straps of her case. She raised an eyebrow at her friends. “Have any of you heard of Draco Malfoy?”</p><p>Ginny shook her head, but Ron and Harry nodded as they walked out the door. “I’m pretty sure he’s on the Slytherin soccer team, but we’ve never played them.”</p><p>Ron hummed in agreement and added, “He’s supposedly a whiz at the violin, which is why I was surprised when you got Concertmaster. I mean, you’re amazing Hermione, but he just might have more music in his genes than Harry.”</p><p>Harry grimaced. “There are way too many people who care about some old orchestra from over fifteen years ago.”</p><p>Shrugging, Ron opened the main doors of the Hogsmeade Center for the Arts and led the way to the bus stop. “It was a big deal. I also think Malfoy’s dad was injured in that final concert and his aunt was Concertmaster and supposedly went insane? I forget the details. I think he also comes from very old money. Was he bothering you a lot besides not turning the page, Hermione?”</p><p>She just sighed. “It’s okay. I can handle it.”</p>
<hr/><p>Hermione had no experience with unfriendly stand partners or rich musically-gifted prep school boys. She could only imagine what a nightmare the rest of the year might be like. So, she decided to solve the problem the only way she knew how. Practice and sheer willpower.</p><p>For the next week, in between AP classes and practicing her Regionals music, Hermione practiced the HYSO music. She practiced before school, during lunch, after school, and she even silently practiced the bowing and fingerings in her room late at night. She recorded herself after a couple days and constantly listened to the pieces. By the first official rehearsal, Hermione had memorized the first two parts of the Mozart and the first movement of the Tchaikovsky.</p><p>Getting out of the old Weasley car with her violin, she took a deep breath. Ginny looked at her with an amused expression. “You look like you’re about to enter a battle.”</p><p>Nodding, Hermione gave her a grim smile. “I think I am.”</p><p>Tugging Hedwig out of her seat, Harry laughed. “Malfoy’s not going to know what hit him.”</p><p>“Right, let’s go do this then.” Hermione turned on her heel and led her friends through the parking deck before confidently going through security and setting up</p><p>There were already other students unpacking, and Neville waved at them with a grin. Hermione tuned out the conversation as she methodically removed the violin blanket covering her violin and slid the shoulder rest onto the instrument. She put her violin down to take out her bow and tightened the bow hair by twisting the little knob at the bottom. More people began to filter in as she pulled out her small block of rosin, sweeping it across the bow hair to make the sound stronger when the bow hair touched the strings of her violin. There were different grades of rosin, and she wished she had some nicer rosin.</p><p>Quickly flicking her bow, she smiled at seeing white clouds of rosin spiraling in the air. Perfect. She self-consciously looked around and was glad to see she fit in better today. Brushing some rosin dust off of her nice blouse, she made her way to her seat in her nicest pair of jeans and ballet flats. Okay, so she wasn’t wearing makeup or extraordinarily nice clothes, but at least she felt confident enough to actually get up in front of the Orchestra today.</p><p>Hermione was looking out at the audience as she absent-mindedly practiced a few of the more interesting parts of the Tchaikovsky when she caught a whiff of cologne. “Still here, I see,” muttered a low voice behind her. She looked over her shoulder to see flat grey eyes looking at her while their owner slid into his seat.</p><p>Dumbledore arrived just then, saving her from thinking of an adequate reply. “Hello, everyone. Let’s not waste any time. Miss Granger, if you will.” He smiled and gestured to the empty podium. Hermione nodded and stepped up. The rest of the orchestra stared up at her, some with curious faces and a few smiles from her friends. She managed to keep a neutral face and nodded to Daphne, who gave her a smile before giving two A’s for the band portion of the orchestra. Hermione signaled two more A’s, the first for the lower section of the strings, and raised her own to tune along with the violins with the fourth and last A.</p><p>She quickly returned to her seat, and was glad that she hadn’t tripped or made a fool of herself. So far, so good.</p><p>Tapping the podium with his baton, Dumbledore held up a score. “We’ll start with the Tchaikovsky. From the top if you will. We’ll try to play at least the first couple pages unless we run into any snags.”</p><p>Hermione breathed a sigh of relief that Dumbledore hadn’t jumped straight into one of the later movements. Judging from how she was the one to pull out the sheet music and arrange it on the stand, it didn’t look like Malfoy was going to be flipping any pages this rehearsal.</p><p>Patiently counting out 38 measures of rests for the first violins, Hermione found herself grinning as she listened to the rest of the orchestra play. She didn’t need to count, but she didn’t know Dumbledore’s conducting style yet and wanted to be prepared. Overall, it was a very pretty piece for the winds to be the stars of this section.</p><p>She was ready when Dumbledore cued them in, and she bobbed her violin to cue the rest of the violins who weren’t paying attention in response. The first section was rather boring until about part B, but she enjoyed playing. The music swelled and rose as they made their way further down the page, and soon she was on the last line of the first page. She glanced over to her stand partner, but he was just playing with no indication of getting ready to turn the page.</p><p>A flurry of pages turning erupted behind her and in the second violins at the rest, but no one moved at the first stand of the first violins. There was only a measure of rest before the E section continued with fast notes played at fortississimo, and the three f’s were quite insistent from her memory.</p><p>Hermione couldn’t help the smile spreading across her face as she continued playing while staring up at Dumbledore, while Malfoy faltered next to her. The rest of the section was still going strong behind her, but she could see Malfoy glaring at her from the corner of her eye, and he still wasn’t playing or moving to turn the page. Hermione kept her eyes focused on Dumbledore as her fingers continued to play, but Dumbledore didn’t look their way once as he continued to direct the brass. He quickly waved his hands and put his arms down once they reached section F.</p><p>“Well that was a wonderful start! Winds, that was excellent. And brass, let’s work on your entrance a little bit. We can start with the pickup to five measures before section E. Please focus on the rhythms.” He raised his baton and then glanced over at Hermione and her stand partner. “And Mr. Malfoy, I do believe it is customary for the inside players to turn pages. While Miss Granger appears to have memorized the piece, it seems like you would benefit from reading the music. I will not have musicians sit and refuse to play. Alright everyone, let’s begin again.” He held up his hands to a low chuckle from Blaise. Hermione looked up and saw Theo leaning a little to his left and giving her a grin. She gave a faint smile in return as she lifted her violin to her neck.</p><p>The sounds of the orchestra beginning again barely covered up Malfoy’s low growl, and Hermione could see his neck flush a little as she played. Malfoy didn’t pick up his instrument, but he did turn the page when it was time with a sigh. He held up his violin and joined in after the page turn.</p><p>The rest of rehearsal went smoothly, and they actually made it through the first movement of the Tchaikovsky and the first part of the Mozart again. For someone who had never turned pages before, Malfoy had a knack for it. He flipped pages precisely at the right moment and managed to do it without any awkwardness in juggling his violin and bow while doing the deed as some people did. It was all very elegant and precise. She had never had a better stand partner when it came to turning pages.</p><p>As soon as Dumbledore dismissed them, Malfoy got up and walked away without a word. He was already walking out with a black case adorned by a leather Slytherin tag by the time Hermione had gathered her music and made her way into the back rehearsal room to pack up.</p><p>Maybe it would be fine.</p><p>Neville smiled at her as he carried his bass into the room. “How was it?”</p><p>Hermione grinned. “I think there’s a truce.”</p>
<hr/><p>She had been very wrong. What truce? It had merely been an initial stalemate.</p><p>Hermione stepped down from tuning the orchestra for the second rehearsal. She returned to her seat while continuing to play the A. Malfoy muttered something as she sat down, and she turned to look at him. Dumbledore had decided to work with the lower strings on a passage for a few minutes and was giving some much needed directions to the viola section.</p><p>“Sorry?” she whispered, as the cellos joined in to go over a tricky passage.</p><p>Malfoy just rolled his eyes and raised his voice so she could hear. “I said, it’s a wonder you made Concertmaster when you can’t even tune properly. You’re lucky that we all listen to Daphne instead of you.”</p><p>Frowning, she whispered back, “What on earth are you talking about? I tuned the Orchestra perfectly well.”</p><p>He smirked at her. “No, you’re tuning in your head instead of listening to Daphne. HSO, HYSO, and Slytherin Prep tune to A441, not A440. You’re clearly tuning to 440 because that’s just what you’re used to instead of listening to the orchestra.”</p><p>Hermione blinked. She had always tuned to A440 and committed the tone to memory. “You can hear that?”</p><p>Malfoy just raised an eyebrow and he picked up his violin when Dumbledore asked for the rest of the instruments to join in. “Of course, I have perfect pitch. Can you not hear the difference?”</p><p>The rest of the rehearsal was uneventful except for one moment when Hermione needed to write down a couple fingerings to make a passage easier. The only thing on their stand was Malfoy’s expensive rosin wrapped in a beautiful green cloth. Hermione was instantly jealous when Malfoy pulled it out in the middle of rehearsal and she saw the beautiful amber color that was worn smooth by an even rotation on Malfoy’s part.</p><p>She didn’t want to ask him to borrow a pencil, but hers wasn’t on the stand. As she brushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear, she remembered she had stuck a pencil in her bun during her AP English Lit class. She carefully fished it out, but her hair decided to rebel and came tumbling down her back in a riot of messy curls.</p><p>Hermione quickly scribbled in fingerings, but she heard a snicker from her left. Rolling her eyes, she quickly redid her bun and picked up her violin to play again.</p><p>Most of the stands were silent in playing music or quietly talking to their stand partners, but Hermione realized that the battle was raging at her stand.</p>
<hr/><p>That evening, Hermione opened the door to the empty apartment and went straight to her closet to dig out the old tuner she hadn’t used for a couple years. The setting was still at A440 because that was what Professor McGonagall and Mr. Weasley had told her was normal. It was what the world considered normal.</p><p>Quickly jabbing the play button, a tinny A filled the silence in her room. It was the same tone she had committed to memory and always tuned to. Her finger pressed another button and the screen flashed to A441. The tone changed the tiniest bit but it did change.</p><p>Groaning, Hermione kept going back and forth between the two tones. Malfoy had been right. HYSO was tuning to A441, and she had just continued to tune to the note in her head because she thought it was close enough to what Daphne had been playing. She had blocked out the noise because that was what she was used to tuning to.</p><p>Of course, Draco Malfoy had perfect pitch. She would have killed to gain the skill some lucky people had been born with, but she only had pretty good relative pitch from years of practicing. She would have to learn to tune to A441 and listen to Daphne’s notes.</p>
<hr/><p>Her shoulder rest broke ten minutes before their third rehearsal. She had been practicing the fourth movement of the Tchaikovsky when one of the legs snapped. Malfoy had just gotten to his seat and smirked at her. “Well, Granger. That’s not a problem for you. You could just use your massive hair as a shoulder rest. It might be a bit scratchy, but I’m sure you’ll survive.”</p><p>Hermione glared at her evil cockroach of a stand partner and stood up to walk over to Ginny. “Hey, do you have an extra sponge I can use? My shoulder rest just snapped.”</p><p>Her friend nodded. “Yeah, it should be in my case with a couple rubber bands. Do you want me to grab it for you?”</p><p>“No, I’ve got it. Thanks, Gin!” She still had enough time to grab it before Dumbledore would make her tune the orchestra.</p><p>The back rehearsal room was empty with empty cases lining the perimeter. Hermione quickly found Ginny’s case and fished out what she needed. She had just finished adjusting everything when she realized that the case next to Ginny’s had a leather Slytherin tag. Making sure no one else was around, she flipped it over to see Draco Malfoy’s name written in neat handwriting. Did they teach them penmanship at Slytherin Preparatory? Honestly, she wouldn’t be surprised.</p><p>She opened it to see a green interior of the case with an extra shoulder rest, bow, and the expensive rosin she had spotted the week before. He had an extra shoulder rest and didn’t offer it to her? He really was a monster. Hermione really hated playing with sponges and she knew that she would have to make do until she could order another shoulder rest. Maybe Mr. Weasley could give her an extra one until she received hers.</p><p>Closing the case, Hermione walked out of the room and back to her seat as Dumbledore was arriving. She met amused grey eyes as she stood tuning the orchestra to A441 and made a decision. She was going to get her revenge.</p><p>Hermione’s homeroom teacher was the Art teacher, Ms. Trelawney. She was a little quirky, in that she always wore interesting prints, had stacks of random fabric strewn across the back countertop, had crystal balls lining her desk, and insisted students call her Sybil, but she was relatively harmless. If Hermione had ever decided to take the art class, she might have gone crazy. But Sybil in small doses once a week for homeroom was manageable. And Hermione needed her for her plan to work.</p><p>“Hi Sybil. How are you?” Hermione managed to smile at the woman whose hands were covered in charcoal dust while flipping through students’ watercolor paintings.</p><p>Huge eyes behind thick glasses blinked back at her. “Oh, Hermione. Is it time for homeroom already?”</p><p>“Yes, but I actually had a favor to ask of you.”</p><p>“What can I do for you, my dear? I can’t let you into the art class no matter how much you beg me. You simply have no talent for it.” Sybil Trelawney gave her a sad smile and continued to flip through the works.</p><p>Gritting her teeth, Hermione refrained from speaking her true thoughts of Sybil’s art class. “Actually, I was wondering if I could have a spare piece of fabric.”</p><p>“What on earth do you need it for?”</p><p>Hermione then remembered that Sybil Trelawney had gotten into a fight with the superintendent last year and had given A’s to every student who managed to land a splat of brown paint on the superintendent’s bright pink dress. “Revenge. I need it for revenge.”</p><p>Her homeroom teacher looked up at her with a small smile. “Take whatever you need, my dear.”</p><p>Grinning, Hermione went over to the countertop and found a scrap of fabric that was the precise shade of Slytherin Green. Perfect. She even found a small silver button and a stretchy spool of silver thread. Even more perfect.</p>
<hr/><p>Right before their fourth rehearsal, Hermione snuck into the back rehearsal room and quickly found Malfoy’s expensive case. She flipped it open and replaced his fancy rosin with the cheap, but rather convincing, substitute she had made over the past week. Wandering over to her own case a few feet away, she put the nice rosin into her own case and covered it up with her violin blanket before grabbing an extra pencil that she was going to use as an excuse if anyone wondered why she had been back there.</p><p>Would he notice quickly? Probably. Would he replace it quickly? Probably. Would he think it was her? Maybe not. But just in case, she would keep the Slytherin rosin in the Gryffindor music room. She hurried back to the stage and practiced in her seat until Dumbledore arrived.</p><p>Nothing special happened that rehearsal, and Hermione raced out of her seat as soon as Dumbledore had dismissed them to leave before Draco Malfoy discovered anything different about his rosin.</p><p>And for the record, the fancy rosin was magical. She used it before every school rehearsal and was glad she had carried out her small act of revenge.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thank you for the comments and kudos! Hope you're enjoying the story so far! And please let me know if you have any questions with the musical nuances!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Sectionals Practice</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Music for this chapter: The girl who fell from the sky by Joe Hisaishi (from Castle in the Sky)</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Hermione blinked at the sheet taped to the closed stage doors. She had gotten to the Hogsmeade Center for the Arts well before rehearsal to explore the practice rooms, but there was already a group of older people who looked like they were Hogwarts Symphony Orchestra members on the stage.</p><p>
  <em>As we announced at the end of the last rehearsal, we will be having sectionals this week due to scheduling conflicts with the HSO. Please find the list of rehearsal spaces below.</em>
</p><p>Groaning, she heard her phone ring with a text. It was a message from Harry reminding her that they had sectionals today, so they would meet up with her afterwards. Her best friend had impeccable timing.</p><p>She looked at the sheet of paper and realized the String section was supposed to be practicing in a building that was a few blocks away. It wouldn’t have been a problem, but it was raining outside and she had barely managed to stay dry under her umbrella on the short walk from the bus stop to the concert hall. With the wind and storm picking up, she was bound to be drenched by the time she made it to rehearsal.</p><p>“Granger?” Nott was walking towards her with a puzzled expression and a couple folders in hand. “What are you doing here?”</p><p>Hermione grimaced. “I forgot we had sectionals today. Why are you here?”</p><p>The dark-haired boy pulled out his phone and walked over to the wall of lockers. “Professor Snape, our orchestra director, asked me to drop off a few forms for one of his friends. Daphne also gave me a couple things to drop off for her father. He has a flight tonight and left something at home, but she has ten minutes left to submit a paper. I decided to be a good boyfriend and volunteer,” he explained as he unlocked two lockers and placed a folder in each of them. He typed something into his phone before pocketing it.</p><p>His dark green eyes looked up at her and noticed her rain-splattered jeans and dripping umbrella. “Do you want a ride to Sectionals? I brought my car with me, and I’m heading over there now.”</p><p>She hesitated for a second, but ten minutes in a decently nice Slytherin’s car sounded better than a twenty minute trek in the rain that was bound to be pouring horizontally at this point. “I would actually really appreciate that, Nott.”</p><p>He rolled his eyes as he held the door open for her. “Please, call me Theo.”</p><p>She smiled at the gesture and nodded. “Okay, Theo. But you have to call me Hermione.”</p><p>Theo laughed as he continued to hold doors open for her as they made their way down various hallways. “Sounds good, Hermione.”</p><p>They chatted about their days on the way to the parking deck, and Hermione found out that Theo was more into STEM and had skipped a couple grades of math, so he was already taking multivariable calculus as a Junior.</p><p>“How can you even do that?” she asked, pitching her voice a little louder than normal in order to be heard over the raging storm outside the safety of the parking deck.</p><p>He smirked. “Slytherin Preparatory has a lot of advanced classes. It sounds like you like your History and Literature classes more. That’s more of Draco’s thing. Daphne’s the only one who will put up with my math obsession because she’s a little bit of a science nerd."</p><p>Hermione laughed. “I can’t see Malfoy liking school.”</p><p>“Oh, you’d be surprised. He’s interested in things that most people wouldn’t expect he would enjoy,” replied Theo as he pulled out his keys next to a Mercedes SUV. He opened the door with a soft smile. “Did you submit your paper, Daph?”</p><p>Hermione peered over his shoulder and saw the pretty blonde oboist on her laptop in the passenger seat. “I just submitted it! If that ridiculous Professor Lockhart doesn’t give me an A on this thing, I’m actually going to file a complaint. The man got in purely because of his family connections! I mean he only has a Bachelor’s degree and has never taught before. If my grades suffer because of him, I’m not going to stand for it,” she huffed as she looked up and saw Hermione. Her cheeks pinked a bit and she gave a small smile. “Hello, Hermione. Please ignore my rant, I tend to unspool a little bit when it comes to incompetent professors.”</p><p>The confused Gryffindor waved back as Theo unlocked the back door for her. “I offered her a ride to Sectionals practice. The weather is too miserable to walk through.”</p><p>Hermione thanked him and quickly scooted inside the nice car. It was so clean and the seats still smelled like new leather.</p><p>Daphne smiled at her boyfriend. “That was very nice of you, Theo. And thank you again for dropping off Father’s papers.” She leaned over to kiss him on the cheek as he got into the car. She looked back at Hermione with a wink. “You’re very lucky club practice got cancelled today, otherwise Theo’s disgusting soccer bag would be back there with you.”</p><p>Theo groaned as he started the car. “The bag is clean, Daphne. Well, it’s much cleaner than everyone else’s bags.”</p><p>He quickly got them out of the parking deck and joined the traffic on the streets. Daphne closed her laptop and pulled on a gray fleece with the Slytherin crest on the front. She held up a bag of pretzels. “Do you want any, Hermione?”</p><p>Hermione shook her head with a smile. “No, thank you.”</p><p>Daphne nodded before opening the bag and handing a pretzel to Theo. He popped it into his mouth and drummed his fingers on the steering wheel while waiting for the light to turn green. “Mind if I turn on some music, Hermione?”</p><p>“Oh, you’re the one driving. I don’t mind either way.”</p><p>“I hope you like classical music, Hermione,” laughed Daphne. “We both have weird music tastes for teenagers.” She leaned forward to switch onto the classical radio station.</p><p>Hermione cracked a smile. “I prefer classical music as well. I don’t understand how people can fall asleep or study for exams to orchestral music. It’s like I try to figure out the notes or get too lost in the music to do anything else. I guess I’m fine with doing math homework to classical music, though.”</p><p>Theo turned around at that and grinned. “Thank goodness someone else gets it. It drives me mad when people study to music. How on earth are you supposed to focus? I do agree that classical music does help when you do math problems. But reading with music? Bad form.”</p><p>Daphne poked her boyfriend’s arm as the light turned green. “Focus on the road, Theo. We’re almost there anyways.”</p><p>They pulled into another parking deck and quickly got out. Hermione noticed Ron’s car in the corner and felt relieved to know that she would have a ride later. A dark gray Audi pulled up a spot over from them as Theo pulled his cello from his trunk. Daphne grinned as the front door opened. “You didn’t forget about Sectionals this time, Draco?”</p><p>Malfoy gave an easy grin back to the girl as he got out of the car with his violin case in tow. “That was one time, Daph. And for the record, I was jet-lagged.” His friendly smile slid off his face as he caught sight of Hermione when Theo closed the trunk of his car. He raised an eyebrow, “Are you taking in strays now, Theo? Or is just having Daphne too tame for you?”</p><p>Theo just rolled his eyes but Daphne sent him a disapproving look. “Theo was just being nice and offered a ride from Hogsmeade, Draco. And I think Hermione’s much better than Pansy Parkinson.” She sent a smile at Hermione before grabbing her hand and dragging her to the door. “Ignore, Draco. He can be a bit of a prat when he doesn’t get his way.”</p><p>Hermione found herself laughing as she let Daphne lead her into an elevator and pressed the buttons for the second and fourth floor. “You mean he’s not always a prat?”</p><p>“Oh, he’s just being a prat around you. I think you’re the first person to ever beat him when it comes to violin, and he’s wanted to be the HYSO Concertmaster for years,” replied Daphne as she got off on the second floor. “Have fun at sectionals!”</p><p>Professor McGonagall was flipping through the score when Hermione walked into the room for the first violins. She looked up and nodded approvingly. “Ah, Hermione. We’ll be starting soon, so please set up your stand.”</p><p>“Hello, Professor McGonagall. I didn’t know you would be teaching our sectionals,” she smiled at her teacher as she quickly unpacked.</p><p>“Yes, Albus asked me to take over for the rehearsal,” the older woman looked up to see the door open again and smiled. “Mr. Malfoy, I was wondering if I would see you today. How are your parents?”</p><p>Hermione turned to see a smiling Draco Malfoy, and she was reminded of the first time he had stopped next to her before he found out she was Concertmaster. “Hello, Minerva. My parents are quite well. I believe they’re hoping you’ll come to their next party.”</p><p>McGonagall laughed and motioned for him to close the door. “Yes, it’s been a while since I’ve seen the old crowd. I’ll see if I can make the time over the holidays.”</p><p>Blinking, Hermione couldn’t help but feel a small twinge of betrayal at the easy conversation between her violin teacher and her horrendous stand partner. She quickly got ready as McGonagall pointed out a few troublesome passages and had the group go over them. Hermione bit her lip as she looked at a passage and raised her hand.</p><p>“Yes, Hermione?”</p><p>“I would like to propose a bowing change here and for the same section on the next page?” she picked up her violin to demonstrate. The other students nodded and began to pencil in the correction.</p><p>Malfoy rolled his eyes and picked up his violin. “I feel like this is better, actually.” He demonstrated a different bowing, and a few students nodded and started to mark over what they had just written.</p><p>Hermione glared at the smirking blond. “I’m Concertmaster, and we should use my bowing. Yours isn’t good.”</p><p>“Your bowing is atrocious. If you’re going to insist that you’re Concertmaster, you should at least do your job correctly,” he sniped back.</p><p>“I’m doing my job perfectly well. You’re the one who needs to just try and control everything when it’s not your job to do so,” she retorted.</p><p>Professor McGonagall banged a music stand and was looking at the pair with a disapproving look. “Well, this isn’t what I expected from my best student and the son of old friends. We’ll use Hermione’s bowing here and Draco’s bowing for the next section.” The other violinists quickly began to make adjustments and the older woman just held up a hand when the first stand started to protest. “Hermione, Draco’s bowing is good for the latter section because it is more intuitive and it will flow better with the rest of the orchestra. Draco, Hermione’s bowing is necessary here because it sets the bowing up for the next few measures, and I doubt you want to do your bowing here when the tempo speeds up. Now, let’s move on.”</p><p>Clenching her teeth, Hermione made the adjustments and listened as Professor McGonagall continued to move through the music. She snuck a look at her stand partner and noticed that his mouth was pinched at one corner. At least she wasn’t the only one unhappy with the proceedings.</p>
<hr/><p>Hermione sighed as she leaned against the corner of the blue Ford Angelina. She had taken the stairs to avoid being in the same elevator as Malfoy. If she was forced to be in close proximity to him beyond their time playing, she might actually strangle him. And that was probably frowned upon at HYSO.</p><p>She looked up from her phone as the front door opened and groaned internally when she saw it was the monster with a girl whose dark hair was cut in a sleek bob. Where were the others?</p><p>The rain had quieted, so she could hear the girl carrying a small flute case ask in a shrill voice, “Draco, could we stop by that salad place for dinner on the way home?”</p><p>The Assistant Concertmaster nodded as he held the passenger door open for her. “Of course, Pansy. It’s on the way to your house anyways.”</p><p>Pansy. Oh, this was the principal flautist. Was this Malfoy’s girlfriend? Figures that she would eat a salad for dinner. She watched as Malfoy adeptly reversed out of his spot and sped away. The taillights had just disappeared when the door opened to Harry, Ron, and Ginny laughing as they exited the building.</p><p>Hermione grinned at her friends and opened the back door when Ron unlocked it. “How were sectionals?”</p><p>“Useless,” snorted Ginny. “I really think Ron and I are the only ones who practice. You would think HYSO violists were different, but they’re just adding to the bad reputation violas get.”</p><p>Harry groaned as he got in the car. “I had this guy called Horace Slughorn? He spent the entire time talking about our parents and famous musicians he knew.” He turned to look at Hermione. “Did you know that Theo’s mom was a famous cellist too? I couldn’t tell who Slughorn was more excited about working with, me or Theo.”</p><p>“More inherited talent then. He seems nice. He gave me a ride to practice today while it was pouring,” mused Hermione as she buckled her seatbelt.</p><p>Ron turned around at that. “You got into a car with a Slytherin?”</p><p>She rolled her eyes and motioned for him to start driving. “It was pouring and his girlfriend was there the entire time. He just seems like a decent human being, unlike his friend. And he agrees with me that it’s impossible to sleep or study to classical music!”</p><p>“Oh, how was your practice?” Ginny was undoing her ponytail with one hand and pulling out her phone with the other.</p><p>“It was a nightmare. Professor McGonagall was there, but I think she’s family friends with Malfoy. He just went and tried to mess up all of my bowings. I really don’t think I can handle being around him more than once a week.”</p><p>Harry chuckled. “You might see him at Regionals though. Was he not there last year?”</p><p>“Definitely not,” said Hermione. She wouldn’t have forgotten that hair or face despite spending most of her spare time last year frantically working on her essay. “I wonder why.”</p><p>Ron stopped the car as a stream of bassists came out of the building and waved at one. He rolled down the window. “Hey, Neville. How was practice?”</p><p>Their tall friend leaned down and grinned. “It was alright. How are you guys?”</p><p>Hermione rolled down her window and made a face. “Random question, but why was Draco Malfoy not at Regionals last year?”</p><p>The bassist frowned but then his expression cleared. “Oh, a lot of the Slytherins go abroad during their sophomore year. Draco was abroad in France with his friends, which is why none of them were at Regionals last year. I think he has family there.”</p><p>Groaning, Hermione slumped in her seat. “Great. Sight reading counts more at Regionals, so he’ll probably beat me and be insufferable about it.”</p><p>Neville chuckled. “You never know what will happen with auditions. Although, if you really want to check out the competition, we have a small concert next Monday night if you want to come. It’s just a small thing for our elementary school students and the parents, but Draco has a solo. Theo also has a solo if you want to judge his playing, Harry. I can let you in the back, and no one should notice that you’re there. I can text you the details once I check the schedule.”</p><p>Harry shrugged, but Hermione was digging through her bag for her phone. “That would actually be great. Let me just get your number.”</p><p>They heard a honk behind them, and there were several cars waiting to get out of the parking deck. Neville backed away and waved at the car behind them. “All of our contact info was in our music folder in the intro packet. I’ll just make a group chat with you guys in it. I should get going. I’ll let you know tonight!”</p>
<hr/><p>Hermione was working on her math homework while listening to the Tchaikovsky when her phone glowed with a text. She scooped it up.</p><p>
  <em>Hey guys! If you meet me in the Junior Parking Lot (follow the signs) at 6 on Monday, I can let you in. Dress nicely if possible so you don’t look suspicious. -NL</em>
</p><p>
  <em>We have to dress up?-RW</em>
  
</p><p>
  <em>Hey, it’ll be like a spy mission. We can go all James Bond on this -HP</em>
  
</p><p>
  <em>Ok, no tuxes or guns. But like slacks and a nice shirt? -NL</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Ugh, fine-RW</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Wait, how long will this take? It is a school night -HG</em>
  
</p><p>
  <em>Oh, maybe thirty minutes if you just want to hear Draco and Theo and have enough time to sneak in? The beginning is a super short orchestra piece, and then the two have the first short solos. You can leave whenever you want. I don’t even have a solo haha- NL</em>
</p><p>
  <em>I’m in!- HP</em>
</p><p>
  
  <em>Fine. Ginny can’t make it though-RW</em>
</p><p>
  
  <em>Sounds good, we’ll see you then! -HG</em>
</p>
<hr/><p>Hermione spent the week practicing for Regionals and other pieces. McGonagall was still not happy with one of her other pieces she was practicing at her lesson for the week. Her parents called her to let her know that they weren’t going to be home in time for dinner again just as she was leaving the Weasley house after her lesson with Harry.</p><p>Her best friend gave her a grin. “Do you want to come over for dinner? Sirius’s cook, Mr. Kreacher, is really good at whipping stuff up.”</p><p>That’s how she found herself standing in the living room of what was possibly the nicest house she had ever been in. The home felt a little dreary, but the living room looked to be something of a music room and had warm colors and beautifully dark wooden walls. Harry was chatting with Sirius about his day while Hermione was looking at the family pictures on the walls.</p><p>Most of the pictures were of a beautiful, but strict-looking, couple with two young boys. She recognized Sirius in the taller boy with a small smirk. Harry’s godfather was quite handsome and was much better than the Dursleys. He did seem a little extravagant and didn’t seem to have a filter, but Harry adored him.</p><p>Hermione found another photo of a teenage Sirius standing with his cello next to a pretty blonde girl standing next to a grand piano. She leaned closer. Something seemed familiar about this woman.</p><p>“Oh, that’s my cousin, Narcissa,” called Sirius as he and Harry made their way towards her. “I haven’t seen her in a while, but she did call me after I was released from prison and invited me over for lunch.”</p><p>Hermione smiled and motioned to the picture. “Was she good?”</p><p>The man laughed and reached for a photo that was on the fireplace. “Narcissa Black was one of the best concert pianists before she retired. Our whole family was involved in music.” He pointed to a photo with five teenagers standing on a stage. “Her older sister, Bellatrix, was Concertmaster of Tom Riddle’s orchestra. Narcissa’s husband was also one of the top violinists for Tom Riddle. Andromeda was also very talented at the harp before she decided she had enough of music and her parents disowned her.”</p><p>Harry leaned closer to the photo. “Did Narcissa marry a Malfoy?”</p><p>Sirius frowned as he nodded. “How do you know about Lucius Malfoy?”</p><p>His godson laughed and Hermione just groaned. “Their son is my HYSO stand partner and he’s been a menace.”</p><p>“Oh?” Sirius sat down in a chair with an amused look as Hermione spent the next few minutes ranting about the violinist and talked about her small revenge. He laughed and shook his head. “I’m glad you put him in his place, Hermione. Narcissa is perfectly lovely, but Lucius is not the most pleasant man to be around. He comes from old money, but it’s not as old as the Blacks. He was quite the talented violinist before the accident.” He shook his head and walked over to a cello case and pulled out the instrument. It was dark and beautiful, and was recently updated after Sirius’s long and unnecessary prison sentence. “Now, why don’t you two show me your fancy HYSO music. I want to see what Dumbledore has you playing nowadays. The man may be off his rocker, but he’s a pretty great conductor.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thank you so much for reading!! I'm thoroughly enjoying reading the comments :) Hope you enjoyed this chapter!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Welcome to Slytherin Preparatory</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Music for this chapter: Zoosters Breakout (by Hans Zimmer from Madagascar)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Slytherin Preparatory was massive. Hermione found her jaw dropping a bit once they got past the front gate. The main road branched off in four directions, and Ron had to stop so they could look at the long list of different locations on the helpful signs. After driving past the front soccer field, the nursery, the elementary school, and the front tennis courts, they pulled into a parking lot that overlooked a creek.</p><p>Neville was waving at them from where he had been sitting on a bench in a suit with a green and silver tie. “Hey guys, found it alright?”</p><p>Ron laughed. “Your school is massive. I think we got lost twice.”</p><p>The Slytherin gave a sheepish grin. “Yeah, it’s big but I got used to it. Come on, it’ll be a five minute walk to the Arts Hall. There’s another parking lot there, but I thought it might be a bit full.”</p><p>They followed Neville, and he pointed out the Sciences building and the History building along the way. The Slytherin architecture was all impressive stonework, with green banners on several lampposts every few feet. Hermione stopped when she spied a library with countless bookshelves and desks through one window, but Harry and Ron pushed her along before she could get a closer look. A beautiful white building with huge columns was ahead with a portion of the roof made of glass. Small children in neat clothing accompanied by parents in suits and flowing dresses were currently entering it.</p><p>“This is the Arts Hall,” murmured Neville as he guided them to a side door. They made their way up a few flights of stairs before Neville peeked through a door. He breathed a sigh of relief and opened the door.</p><p>They found themselves in a hallway that was pitch black, save for the light coming from three doors. Neville held the door they had just come from open to let in some light. He pointed to the door on their left. “That door leads to the main hall, so I wouldn’t use it unless you want to run into a bunch of rich parents intent on making their kids start learning an instrument.” He motioned to the door on the right. “That door will lead to the back of the auditorium. Come in as soon as you hear us start to play the first piece. The performance will begin in about ten minutes. You should be able to find empty seats in the back, and no one should bother you. You can just come back through it whenever you decide you’ve had enough. Do you remember how you got here?”</p><p>Both Ron and Harry looked at Hermione, who just rolled her eyes with a nod. “I remember. Neville, do you think anyone would come here while we’re waiting?”</p><p>The tall boy thought for a second before shaking his head. “No one really uses this passageway besides a few orchestra members who are trying to sneak around or are late to rehearsal. Everyone’s already here, so it should be fine.” He looked around. “I guess if you really needed to hide, you can always just stay behind these boxes. They’re just props for the annual Christmas concert.”</p><p>The trio of Gryffindors made their way behind a stack of boxes and thanked Neville, who quickly left the passageway to return to his seat. They had barely settled for less than a minute before the door opened again. They ducked behind the boxes, but it remained dark.</p><p>Hermione froze when she caught a whiff of familiar cologne a few seconds before a familiar voice echoed in the darkness.</p><p>“Yes, I know, Mother. I just have to finish this concert for the younger Slytherin kids, and then I have to go straight to club practice. The concert should only take an hour, so I should just be able to make the end of practice.” Malfoy paused for a few seconds before continuing, “Yes, there’s a game on Saturday, so I can’t make it to your luncheon. I thought Father could go with you?”</p><p>There was another pause before Malfoy was laughing softly. It was a warm sound that didn’t suit the boy at all and Hermione frowned. “Anyways, I’ll be home late tonight. No, you don’t have to ask Mr. Dobbs to stay behind. I’ll just grab dinner on my way home. Would you like me to get anything? Of course I can do chocolate cake, Mother. You think so little of your son. I love you, and I’ll see you tonight.” There was the sound of a call ending and the door opened again before softly closing.</p><p>The trio let out a collective breath. From her left, she heard Ron mutter, “What do you know, he does have a heart.” Hermione sighed.</p><p>A few minutes later, they heard applause and the beginning of music. They quickly slipped through the door and found themselves in a massive auditorium. It looked like it could easily hold five hundred people, and that wasn’t counting the empty balcony above them. Harry found a stack of programs and swiped one as they sat in an empty row. He leaned to look closer at the program under the dim light and let out a small laugh. “They’re playing <em>Zoosters Breakout</em> from Madagascar?”</p><p>Hermione smiled as she looked at the crowd of young children and parents in front of them. She whispered back, “Well, it looks like the kids are enjoying it.” The song was fast-paced and exciting, and it only took a couple minutes before the piece ended to excited applause. She could pick out a fair number of familiar faces from HYSO. Malfoy was Concertmaster, Zabini was his stand partner, and Theo was principal cellist</p><p>The conductor introduced himself as Severus Snape. His dark eyes were sweeping across the audience, but he never looked in their direction due to the dim lighting. He introduced the goal of the concert, which was to explain a few of the instruments and to give the younger students an opportunity to see if they wanted to explore any in particular. They would have sample instruments in the music classes later this week, so that students could get an even closer look. He gestured to Theo, who stood up with a grin and accepted the microphone.</p><p>“Hello everyone. My name is Theo, and I’ve playing the cello since third grade. I also saw the high school play when I was younger, and I knew I had to get my hands on this gorgeous instrument here.” He spun his cello and smirked when a few younger kids perked up. “Let me begin my campaign for the cello.”</p><p>He gave a charming grin and gestured to his fellow orchestra members. “All the strings are awesome, even if my girlfriend is a wind player. The cello is great because it’s big and you can hide all sorts of snacks in the case, just kidding Professor!” he yelped when Snape turned a sharp glare in his direction to the delight of the younger students and a few chuckles from the parents.</p><p>Theo turned to his chair and grabbed his bow. “Now, the cello has lower tones but it’s so incredibly rich. It’s like it’s singing on your behalf.” He played the open strings and a few random notes that rang through the quiet hall. Hermione marveled at the acoustics of the hall that helped the dulcet sounds sing. “Let me play you one of my favorite pieces.”</p><p>Turning off the mic, Theo began to play in earnest. She immediately recognized the prelude to the Bach Cello Suites and blinked. Theo was good. Really good. The notes were effortlessly coaxed from his instrument, and Theo was closing his eyes as he played with his left hand dancing up and down the fingerboard. He only played for a minute, but Hermione could see more than a few students tugging their parents’ sleeves and pointing at the bowing Junior cellist as the applause rang through the hall.</p><p>She turned to see Harry looking impressed. “You never know how good they are until you hear them play alone. No wonder he got principal.”</p><p>Ron was nodding on the other side and listening thoughtfully. “He is really talented. I wonder what the others sound like.”</p><p>Snape took the mic again before handing it off to a handsome Draco Malfoy. The blond smirked as he turned off the mic and played the opening notes to <em>Under the Sea</em> before switching to the melody of <em>A Whole New World</em>. A couple of the students were smiling in delight while Snape looked annoyed.</p><p>He quickly stopped playing and turned on the mic again. “Hello, my name is Draco. I play the violin, and everyone knows that it’s better than the cello,” he stage whispered into the mic while Theo just rolled his eyes in his seat.</p><p>Holding up his instrument, he gave it a small twirl. “The violin is the more impressive one, as we get a lot of melodies. Theo said that the cello sings, but all the instruments sing. The violin is a little different because you can reach higher notes that you can’t sing, so you can play different types of music. It’s an extension of yourself. The cello suits Theo because he can’t sing to save his life, but he’s quite a decent cellist,” he bowed towards his friend to the loud laughs from the audience.</p><p>Malfoy straightened up with a smaller, but more genuine smile. “The violin is popular, and there’s a lot of great music that’s been written for it. However, you can play music with any instrument and people are composing music for all instruments today. If you decide to play in an orchestra, it’s important to know that the orchestra is about being one cohesive unit. You need to be a team player. No matter what instrument you play, or where you sit, every member of the orchestra has an important role, and you need every single one of them to make great music. You’ll hear the band behind us play with us later for <em>Pirates of the Caribbean</em>, and you’ll see how fantastic everything sounds with everyone together, despite Theo being right that the strings are better objectively,” he winked while the band grumbled good-naturedly behind him.</p><p>A loud tapping echoed from where Snape was leaning against the podium. “Any day now, Mr. Malfoy.”</p><p>“Sorry, Professor.” Malfoy continued, “In case you do love solo music, here’s a short one for the violin.” He turned off the mic and handed it to the disgruntled conductor.</p><p>Harry scoffed at the first couple notes, “Of course he’s playing <em>Meditation.</em> How pretentious is this guy?” Ron was grumbling in agreement, but Hermione didn’t hear them.</p><p>The beginning of the piece wasn’t anything technically astounding compared to what they were playing in HYSO, but Hermione was floored. Draco Malfoy was good. No, not good. Perfect. She was amazed at the sound coming from his instrument. She had known he must have been good since he was the HYSO Assistant Concertmaster and the Slytherin Concertmaster, but this was something different. She had never been able to hear him play properly because it’s hard to hear specific individuals while an entire orchestra is playing.</p><p>He was playing like his soul was in the instrument, and his eyes had naturally fallen closed. The notes were clean and perfect, but there was something else about it. It was like each note had its own story and was carefully caressed before being released into the hall. Hermione knew what it looked like when musicians were faking their emotions to play the music, as she was quite terrible at playing with emotion.</p><p>Draco Malfoy’s expression showed that he wasn’t just playing the music, but embodying it with just about every fiber of his being. She swallowed. His confidence about his ability wasn’t anything inflated. He was simply that good.</p><p>The trio snuck out during the applause. While the boys were wondering how the kids stayed that quiet and still in their seats, Hermione had only two thoughts in mind.</p><p>One, Draco Malfoy was an amazing violinist and possibly a decent human being. Two, she was so screwed for Regionals auditions.</p>
<hr/><p>Hermione waved goodbye to the others as she hurried into her building, trying to avoid getting too drenched as it suddenly began to pour. Distracted by thoughts of a talented Draco Malfoy possibly failing her Regionals audition, and sweeping her hair into a ponytail, she almost ran into an eight year old and his mom.</p><p>She had never seen them before, but she just nodded an apology and turned to grab the mail. Absently grabbing the stack, she almost missed the small boy asking, “Mommy! That girl has a hickey!” She froze and grimaced a bit.</p><p>Turning around, Hermione caught the horrified expression of the woman. “Actually, I play—” she barely managed to start before the door slammed shut behind the pair. Groaning, she just continued up the stairs. It had been a while since someone had mistaken the bruise from long hours of violin practice on her neck for a hickey. The first time anyone had commented on it had been her older cousins at a Thanksgiving dinner her freshman year. It had been a small nightmare of a holiday.</p><p>Fishing her key out of her bag, Hermione let herself into the apartment and quickly turned on a few lights before dropping the mail on the kitchen table. She paused while opening the refrigerator when an old photograph caught her eye.</p><p>It was a picture of a five year old Hermione laughing and dancing with a street violinist. She couldn’t remember the piece that had been played, but she had fallen in love with the instrument and begged her parents for her own mini violin. Hermione bit her lip as she grabbed a container of leftovers out of her fridge.</p><p>From the way Draco Malfoy had talked about music and played his solo tonight, he had also fallen in love with the instrument like she had.</p>
<hr/><p>The next rehearsal, Malfoy was almost late, and he was limping a little when he finally showed up a few seconds into Daphne playing her first A for the orchestra. Hermione sat down after tuning the orchestra and noticed Zabini lean over to whisper to his friend, “How’s your foot feeling today?”</p><p>“I’m fine. Just need to rest a little bit,” muttered Malfoy as he flipped to the right page of music.</p><p>Zabini nodded. “I thought Coach Hooch was going to have a breakdown when we thought you broke your ankle last practice. We really can’t afford you missing more than a game.”</p><p>Malfoy shrugged. “It is what it is, and it should be better by the game on Sunday. Besides, Regionals auditions are this weekend, so I might as well use the extra time to practice. I’ve been so busy trying to keep a handle on everything that this might actually be a good thing.”</p><p>The second violinist rolled his eyes. “A good thing would be you dropping one of your six AP classes.”</p><p>Dumbledore arrived and announced they would start from the top of the Tchaikovsky. Hermione was dutifully counting the measures when Malfoy’s shoulder rest slipped and fell a few feet towards the front of their stand. He went to go pick it up, but hissed in pain as he moved his left foot.</p><p>Still counting measures, Hermione got out of her seat and picked up the shoulder rest before silently handing it to her stand partner.</p><p>Malfoy managed a stiff nod of thanks as he slipped it back onto his violin. Hermione noticed he hadn’t said anything disparaging to her yet, and she couldn’t stop thinking of his performance from a few nights ago. She wanted to hear him play again and wondered how he sounded playing more technical pieces. Would that emotion and style still be there?</p><p>They were entering a trickier spot when Hermione felt her shoulder rest wobble. She was still using a replacement, and it always came loose. Groaning, she flipped her violin over in the middle of playing and tried to fix it. As she was working on it, she realized that she could hear Malfoy playing perfectly next to her. He was even playing a little louder to make up for the fact that she wasn’t playing. While she worked to fix her shoulder rest, she couldn’t help but marvel at his playing. It really was perfect. She wondered how she ever beat him to sit in her chair.</p><p>There was definitely something more to Draco Malfoy.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thank you so much for the kudos, the lovely comments, and for reading! I hope you're enjoying the story!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Regionals Auditions</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Music for this chapter: Didn't You Love Anything by Craig Armstrong (from the Me Before You soundtrack)</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Hermione breathed a sigh of relief as she exited the Audition room for the first round of Regionals. She had played the excerpt correctly, and the sight-reading had been fine. Luckily, your score only needed to exceed a preset threshold in order to pass the first round. It had been a long week of school tests and practicing for Regionals, so she was ready to reward herself with a couple hours off to take a nap and pick up some Chinese food on the way home.</p><p>She had the horrible habit of not being able to sleep or eat when she got really stressed, and the past week had been one of the most stressful weeks of her life. Thank goodness it was over. Hermione followed the sound of other auditionees practicing back to the school gym that was being used as a warm-up before students went into other classrooms for their scheduled audition.</p><p>Quickly packing away her violin, Hermione glanced around the room. She didn’t know any of the other students frantically practicing before their auditions. As she left, she looked at the schedule to see if anyone would be playing after her. She traced her finger down the list past her name and blinked when she saw Draco Malfoy a few spots after her.</p><p>Hermione checked her phone and realized that he had about fifteen minutes before his audition. Well, really five minutes because the check-in was required at least ten minutes before the audition time. She took one more sweep around the room, but she didn’t see the white blond hair. Maybe he had rescheduled? He probably had enough clout that he could make arrangements.</p><p>She hurried out of the school and shook her head as she breathed in the crisp fall air. What did she care if he missed his audition? It was probably for the best because she wouldn’t have to deal with a prime competitor, and there was a lower chance of her having to spend an entire weekend next semester with him. Pushing all thoughts of Draco Malfoy from her mind, Hermione started thinking of what she wanted to eat for lunch. The fastest way to the nearest bus stop was through the parking lot, and Hermione carefully made her way through the crowded lot of auditionees.</p><p>Already fantasizing about her much-needed nap and lunch, she almost didn’t notice the sleek grey Audi in the middle of the parking lot. She blinked and frowned at the sight. Malfoy was in the front seat, but he wasn’t moving. Hermione was tempted to just continue walking, but she bit her lip and walked towards the car. It would be one thing to fail an audition due to lack of skill, but it was another to miss it entirely.</p><p>As she walked closer, she could see that Malfoy was sleeping with his violin in the passenger seat and what looked to be a Biology textbook open on his lap. She held up her hand and gently tapped on the passenger window.</p><p>Grey eyes slowly blinked open before snapping open. “Malfoy? You have three minutes until your check-in window ends,” she told him loudly through the glass as he jolted awake.</p><p>He checked his watch and she could hear him utter a muffled, “Fuck” before his door was being thrown open and he bolted with his violin case dangling from a clenched fist. Hermione blinked as she watched the usually confident Slytherin sprint towards the front entrance with collar askew and shirt untucked. She was already regretting letting him know, but at least no one would blame her for not helping him. She idly noted that his foot must be feeling better if he could run that quickly.</p><p>Moving to close the door he had flung open, she noticed he had left his keys on the seat. Groaning, she reached in to grab the keys and closed the door before locking it.</p><p>“Granger? Are you breaking into Draco’s car?” a smooth voice sounded behind her, and she turned around to see one Blaise Zabini walking towards her with his own violin case.</p><p>“Hi, Zabini. Malfoy was running late and left his car unlocked. Could you give him his keys?” She tossed him the keys quite badly, and she was rather impressed that he had managed to catch them.</p><p>He looked at her with a curious expression. “Why don’t you just go inside and give them to him yourself?”</p><p>She shrugged and her stomach growled. “I already finished my audition, and I’m dying for food and a nap. I’ll see you at HYSO rehearsal.” Turning her back on him, she pulled out her phone to let her parents know that she was on her way home and that she could pick up any groceries along the way.</p><p>Just as she was opening the door to her apartment, her phone buzzed with a text from an unknown number.</p><p>
  <em>Thanks, Granger.</em>
</p>
<hr/><p>Hermione shivered on-stage. She had left her sweater in Ron’s car, and it was too late to go get it. Stretching her fingers, she opened her folder to warm up before rehearsal began. A thump next to her made her look up to see a smirking Blaise Zabini.</p><p>“Hello, Granger. How was your audition?”</p><p>She managed a small smile. “I made it to the next round, so I guess that’s all that matters. What about you?”</p><p>He nodded and brushed a speck of dust off the scroll of his violin. “It was fine. All of Slytherin makes it past the first round, and this year was no different. Professor Snape would have our heads if any of us didn’t pass the first round.” He raised an eyebrow and looked behind her. “Speak of the devil. Well this should be interesting.”</p><p>Hermione turned around and saw the Slytherin conductor making his way onstage. Was there a reason he was here?</p><p>A faint wave of cologne swept over her, and she looked up to see Malfoy slip into his seat. His grey eyes studied her for a second before nodding. “Granger.”</p><p>She swallowed and nodded back. “Hello Malfoy.”</p><p>A tapping from the podium quickly quieted the orchestra. Snape looked around the orchestra with a bored expression. “Hello everyone. Dumbledore had a conflict, so I will be leading today’s rehearsal. Miss Greengrass, if you will.” He nodded to Daphne, who obediently played the A, before looking at Hermione and stepping back from the podium.</p><p>She shivered, half from chill in the hall and half from the icy look Professor Snape was giving her, as she stood to tune the orchestra to a proper 441. She really wished she had warmed up. Quickly taking her seat, she rubbed her fingers together to try to get some circulation back.</p><p>“Alright, I want to hear the third movement of the Tchaikovsky. I know you haven’t gone over it yet, and most of you probably don’t know the piece, so I’m just going to have the principals play.” He lifted his baton, and Hermione blinked. That had never happened before.</p><p>She could feel the rest of the orchestra relax as she raised her instrument along with Blaise Zabini, Ginny, and Theo. A few other members picked up their instruments in the band section. Her left fingers were still stiff and her right hand was shaking a little involuntarily as she placed her bow on the string.</p><p>Hermione breathed as Snape began to conduct. She was so focused on playing the notes correctly and trying to keep her bow from shaking that she didn’t think about trying to do anything more. The baton rapped the podium and the music quickly dissipated.</p><p>“Miss Granger. The first violins have the entire melody here, and it’s just about as good as a bloody solo. Why is there no phrasing or any projection here? There’s absolutely no color.” Snape was frowning at her, and Hermione froze. She barely noticed Draco shift imperceptibly next to her. He raised his baton again. “Draco, I know that you’re good enough to sight read this. No need to join in this time, Miss Granger.”</p><p>Feeling a small sense of shame rising up in her, Hermione could only look at her knees as Malfoy played with the other principals. The fabric of her jeans blurred in her eyes as she shivered in her seat, listening to the beautiful melody coming from beside her. If she hadn’t already heard him play by himself, this would have been the moment she realized how great Draco Malfoy’s musical prowess was.</p><p>She barely heard Snape talk about a few other parts before she saw a pale hand reach to flip to the first movement. A soft tap on her ankle made her look down to see a gleaming bow slowly retreating to her left. Hermione blinked and looked up to see Malfoy picking up his violin along with the rest of the orchestra. She sat up straight and frantically looked at the music, barely coming in at the correct time.</p><p>Taking a deep breath, she calmed down as she played, her fingers warming up and relaxing. They made it halfway through the first movement before Snape stopped them again.</p><p>He looked murderous as he yelled at different sections for different problems. His voice rose as his baton continued to tap on the podium, and Hermione watched, bewildered, as one final slam of the baton caused half of it to break off and soar over the orchestra to land in an empty spot in front of the band section. A couple nervous giggles broke out, but they quickly ceased as his voice turned low and deadly. He began talking about decorum and seating before he whirled on Harry and said something else that made her friend stiffen before green eyes narrowed and glared up at the man. As Snape shifted to turn his ire on the viola section, it looked like Harry was going to stand up and say something, but Theo leaned over and grabbed his arm before shaking his head.</p><p>Hermione raised her instrument as Snape held up his broken baton and began to conduct again. As they raced through the fast and loud sections, Hermione couldn’t feel the cold in the auditorium anymore. She was angry. How could this man just come in and demand them to play solos? And then he goes and yells when he could have just calmly explained how to fix any issues like Dumbledore had done? And what on earth had he said to Harry? It looked like only he and Theo had heard what the man had said. Harry had his moments, but she had never seen him this angry. The rehearsal passed by, with a few more comments and sneers directed their way, but it quickly ended with Snape closing the score with a flourish and stalking off stage.</p><p>She heard a sigh from next to her and looked up to see Malfoy standing up with his folder. He glanced down at her with a blank expression. “See you next week, Granger.” The blond quickly walked away, while Hermione remained in her seat.</p><p>“You alright, Granger?” Zabini was looking at her with a frown, as he also stood with his folder in hand.</p><p>Shrugging, Hermione grabbed her own folder and stood up. “I’ll be fine. I’m more worried about what he said to Harry.” She made her way around the podium and towards a furious looking Harry, who was talking to Theo. “Are you okay, Harry?”</p><p>Ron and Ginny were grabbing their things from next to the livid cellist. Ginny was frowning and nodded. “What happened? Ron and I couldn’t even hear what he said.”</p><p>“He said that I was just like my dad!” Harry growled and he looked like he was tempted to throw his folder on the ground. “He said I was being arrogant, weak with my rhythm and intonation, and altogether lazy. I actually practiced this part, and I was perfectly in tune! I have perfect pitch!” roared Harry as the rest of the Orchestra glanced warily in their direction while quickly fleeing the stage.</p><p>Hermione grabbed her best friend’s arm before he could smack his bow into a worried looking Theo. “Harry, you need to calm down before you stab someone. I’m sure you were fine. Maybe Snape was just having a bad day?”</p><p>Green eyes flashed before Harry began to shout again. “A bad day? He’s an adult! If he’s having a bad day, he should know better than to terrorize high school students and insult a student’s dead dad!”</p><p>Theo shook his head with a sigh. “Snape has a lot of anger in him. He’s pretty strict in our Slytherin rehearsals, but he does have his moments.”</p><p>“But what gives him the right to insult Harry and single him out?” asked a confused Ron. He set his viola down on his seat and crossed his arms. “Does he have some traumatic past?” he asked while rolling his eyes.</p><p>The principal cellist winced. “Well, he was actually at that Halloween concert that Tom Riddle was leading. He was pretty badly hurt from what I heard.”</p><p>Hermione turned at that with a curious expression. “He played in the Orchestra? I don’t remember seeing his name in the program Harry showed us.”</p><p>“Well, he was actually an assistant conductor. He was learning from Tom Riddle and was considered his protégé,” explained Theo. “He apparently noticed something was wrong and rushed on stage a second before the explosion happened. It took him a few years to recover, but his injuries weren’t life threatening. Dumbledore took him under his wing afterwards, and Snape became the music director at Slytherin Prep. People say he’s very by the books because he thinks people still associate him with Riddle, and there were rumors that he was involved in the plot but got cold feet at the last minute. He was briefly considered a suspect before being named a hero for trying to stop the explosion”</p><p>Frowning, Harry slumped back into his seat. “Okay, fine he demands perfection. But why did he target me specifically? And he also went after Hermione! I mean, there were definitely other people who messed up too.” He sheepishly looked up at his stand partner. “Theo, you did miss a couple notes here and there.”</p><p>Theo pretended to be offended but just nodded and shrugged. “Yeah, I didn’t get a chance to look over the music this week. Between Regionals auditions, a new set for Slytherin Prep, a game, and midterms, it was a pretty rough week.”</p><p>“Isn’t it obvious, Potter?” called Blaise Zabini as he sauntered towards the group with his case. He smirked, and Hermione wondered if they taught all of the boys at Slytherin how to perfect the expression.</p><p>He grabbed an empty cellist’s seat and turned it around before straddling it to face them. “My mother told me all of the gossip a few weeks ago when I mentioned that you showed up at HYSO. Rumor has it that Snape was in love with a certain Lily Potter nee Evans. They were childhood friends, but there was a disagreement of some sort. She ended up with James Potter, which is why you’re here now, Potter.” His amber eyes twinkled at the shock on Harry’s face before he turned to look at Hermione.</p><p>“As for Granger, here. I think he called you out unnecessarily because he’s terrified of what will happen when Lucius sees the first concert in a few weeks.” His lips curled in a triumphant smile. “I’m rather looking forward to seeing Snape put in his place.”</p><p>Theo just rolled his eyes. “If Lucius goes after Snape, we’re going to have miserable rehearsals for the next month, Blaise.”</p><p>Zabini’s grin slid off his face and was replaced with an expression of horror. “We need to prevent Lucius Malfoy from seeing any concerts this year then.”</p><p>Ginny rolled her neck. “What’s going to happen when Mr. Malfoy sees the concert?”</p><p>“Draco is Snape’s godson,” Daphne answered as she also joined the group with her bag and oboe case in hand. She smiled at Hermione and leaned her head on Theo’s shoulder. “Snape was also involved in the blind auditions. Once Lucius figures out that Draco didn’t make Concertmaster, I don’t know who’s going to be in bigger trouble between Draco and Snape.”</p><p>“But Malfoy’s Assistant Concertmaster,” interjected Hermione.</p><p>Blaise just shrugged. “Malfoys have to be the best. Being the best is important to Lucius Malfoy.”</p><p>Sighing, Theo waved his hand as he tried to provide more clarity to the situation. “Draco’s an only child, and Lucius Malfoy isn’t well enough to play anymore. He was supposed to be one of the best violinists of our parents’ generation, and his whole legacy is resting on Draco’s shoulders.”</p><p>He picked up his folder and looked up at Hermione with a sad smile. “Draco’s naturally talented at a lot of things, but he works harder than anyone else. How else do you think he’s managing top grades in 6 AP classes while also being Concertmaster of the Slytherin Orchestra, Class President, Captain of the Soccer Team, a referee for the youth leagues, and HYSO’s Assistant Concertmaster? That’s also ignoring the fact that he’s still managing to be a functioning human being for the most part, ignoring him being an arse to you, Hermione. I think you just caused a small dent to all of his plans, but he is generally a good guy.”</p><p>Hermione pressed her lips together and nodded. She knew that Malfoy wasn’t a monster now. He was just slightly more than aggravating towards her. She let out a breath. Even rich boys must have their own problems.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Apologies for the slightly late update, but real life got in the way! But thank you so much for the comments and kudos :) They're very much appreciated! Happy Holidays everyone!!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Fall Concert</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Music Recommendation for this chapter: Dawn by Dario Marianelli (from Pride and Prejudice)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The last four notes of Tchaikovsky’s 5<sup>th</sup> symphony rang in the practice room as Dumbledore put his baton down with a flourish. He nodded approvingly. “Everything sounds wonderful. I know that quite a few people have been looking forward to hearing you all tonight, and I do not think they will be disappointed. You are all free to practice on your own for the next few minutes until the stage managers call you to the stage.”</p><p>Stand partners began to chatter as he stepped down from the podium, and a few stands were going through some trickier measures. Hermione thought she could see a few violists frantically learning a few tricky spots with an irate Ginny coaching them through it.</p><p>She glanced up to see Dumbledore looking down at her with a smile. “Miss Granger, you will be entering the stage right before me to tune the orchestra. I’ll make sure someone shows you to the right place once we have the rest of the orchestra seated.”</p><p>“Thank you, sir,” she murmured as she nervously shuffled the sheet music around on her stand. There were a few places here and there that she was worried about, and her fingers were freezing. She needed to practice more to keep them from stiffening.</p><p>Hermione silently flipped through different parts and practiced. She could hear Malfoy chatting with Blaise next to her, and it sounded like they were discussing an upcoming championship match. How did people not get nervous before performances? Looking up at the clock, she realized she had less than five minutes to practice. Quickly turning the page, she looked at the trickiest part in the music. Five times. She was going to practice it five times before she stopped. Maybe she would go over to talk to Harry and the others afterwards to calm down a bit.</p><p>She managed to get through it four times without any mistakes. As she began to play a final time, Malfoy also raised his violin and joined her. Their notes soared over the rest of the Orchestra with perfect precision and musicality. Hermione was so focused on playing that she didn’t notice the other students looking their way or the small quirk in the corner of Draco’s mouth.</p><p>The pair had barely gotten to the end of the passage when a large man entered the room while clapping his hands. A broad smile was barely visible under his beard. “Hello, I’m Rubeus Hagrid. Please line up, and we’ll have you go into the hall shortly.”</p><p>Hermione gulped and froze as everyone else got out of their seats in a flurry of instruments and sheet music. She shivered a bit and flexed her fingers to keep them warm under the air conditioning. Her eyes were still focusing on the open music in front of her as she tried to concentrate on her breathing. The blurry black notes disappeared from view with a faint wave of cologne.</p><p>Blinking, she looked up to see a frowning Malfoy give her a nod. “It’ll be fine, Granger,” he muttered gruffly. She had barely returned the nod before he turned and left her alone in a sea of empty black chairs. He had been nicer in the past couple rehearsals, but nothing extraordinary had happened. He had checked all of their bowings, asked her before making any changes, and even asked her for her opinion on certain fingerings. She just focused on trying not to throw up as her friends rushed past her and wished her good luck to catch up with the students leaving the practice room.</p><p>The chattering and random notes disappeared from the room, and she could faintly hear the Orchestra setting up on stage and beginning to practice. Someone entered the room, and Hermione looked up to see Hagrid give her a friendly wave. “I’ll show you how to get to your spot, Hermione.”</p><p>She managed a shaky smile and made sure she had her violin, bow, and new shoulder rest. “Thank you, Hagrid.” She followed him, and he kept up a low stream of commentary explaining how she should navigate through the corridors behind the stage. He finally opened another door to reveal a small antechamber where Dumbledore was already waiting.</p><p>The conductor smiled at her and thanked Hagrid for showing her to the spot. “How are you feeling, Miss Granger?” he asked.</p><p>Hermione took a deep breath. “Honestly, I’m slightly terrified, sir.” She focused on the small window in the door opposite to her, where she could see the bright lights of the hall and her fellow HYSO members practicing.</p><p>Shaking his head, the older man adjusted his glasses. “It’ll be wonderful, you’ll see. Once you begin to play with everyone, just make sure you enjoy it. Every time music is made, it’s a special time that must be savored.”</p><p>The lights in the hall dimmed, forcing the light on stage to become blinding in comparison. The cacophony of practicing vanished, and Hermione froze. She blinked when Dumbledore pulled the door open for her. His kind blue eyes held a twinkle as he gestured for her to walk forward.</p><p>Making sure she had a firm grip on her violin, Hermione stepped through the doorway and made the walk towards the podium. She found Harry, Ron, Ginny, and even Theo giving her smiles as she walked closer. She found herself grinning back while she steadfastly ignored the soft murmurings of the crowd to her right.</p><p>Finally arriving at the podium, she took a deep breath as she turned and gave a short bow to the crowd to applause. She made the mistake of looking out at the audience and froze a little at the sight of so many people. What on earth was she doing? The hall was completely silent as she blinked at the crowd in front of her. This was way too many people to be watching her play on stage. A few people were starting to look confused when she didn’t move, but Hermione couldn’t move her legs.</p><p>A soft <em>crack</em> rang in the hall, and Hermione jumped. Turning, she caught sight of Draco bending over in his seat to pick up the stack of sheet music that must have fallen off of the stand. Shaking her head, Hermione quickly got a hold of herself and made her way onto the podium. She found Daphne behind the string players and nodded for the A. The oboist gave her a reassuring smile before obeying. Hermione also raised her violin to tune and felt herself relax a tiny fraction. She could do this.</p><p>All too soon, she was back in her seat and shuffling her feet with the rest of the Orchestra when Dumbledore began to walk on stage. She watched for when Theo stood up, and led the rest of the Orchestra in standing as Dumbledore bowed to much larger applause than she had received. The conductor shook her hand, and Hermione met his eyes again. She could do this.</p><p>Hermione patiently counted the measures of rests before cuing in the rest of the violins into Tchaikovsky’s 5<sup>th</sup> Symphony. Her nerves began to ease as she played, and the rest of the concert hall fell away. She didn’t think of the hundreds of audience members, the bright lights that were slightly blinding, or the unfinished essay on her laptop. It was just her and the rest of the orchestra creating music.</p><p>The last movement ended with the lowering of Dumbledore’s baton and loud applause. The old conductor picked up a microphone and gave a gentle smile to the audience.</p><p>“Hello everyone. Thank you for joining us for the HYSO fall concert. I know you are anxious to hear the next piece, but please allow this old man to explain his choices for this evening.” His blue eyes twinkled as he turned around to survey the orchestra.</p><p>“Every year, I spend the summer deliberating over which pieces we should play this year. The list gets finalized only after auditions are over. Every orchestra is different, and I think the first concert should emulate the orchestra itself.”</p><p>He gave the students a smile before turning back to the audience. “Tchaikovsky was a complicated man. While he was successful and talented, his life was full of personal crises. When it came to this particular symphony, he was filled with extreme self-doubt. Yet, he managed to complete this symphony over the period of one summer and it is still played around the world today.”</p><p>Dumbledore paused for a moment. “He was determined to prove himself. The beginning of the symphony begins with a somber motto, one that echoes throughout the symphony itself. The first movement was described to be resignation to fate itself. It’s a bit discordant compared to how symphonies usually go, but there’s light at the end. There’s a resolute victory at the end of this strife. In fact, this has been described as Fate trying to get out and escape. Some think that it’s a bit over the top, and that the victory sounds a bit fake. I suppose that is up for the listener or player to decide.”</p><p>Hermione frowned as Dumbledore spoke. Self-doubt, struggle, Fate. If he picked it for this Orchestra, what did that mean about the students in the Orchestra? It seemed a bit pointed at her, but would Dumbledore really pick a Symphony just for her?</p><p>She could see other Orchestra members shifting in their seats, and she found herself looking around. Harry and Ron didn’t look to be listening to the conductor, but she noticed that Theo was moving his gaze from a serene Dumbledore towards her.</p><p>She blinked at the calculating look in his eye. No, he wasn’t looking at her. He was looking at Malfoy.</p><p>Biting her lip, she chanced a glance at her stand partner. Malfoy was stoically looking at the sheet music that was still open to the last few measures of the Tchaikovsky. Anyone looking from the audience would think he wasn’t listening either. But she could see that his mouth slightly pinched in one corner, his jaw clenched.</p><p>Hermione quickly averted her eyes as Dumbledore finished his speech. “This year’s Orchestra is a lovely mix of students, many of whom haven’t played together before. As you can see, they play beautifully together. I think you will all see a great victory in their progress at the Spring concert. Now, enough words from an old man. The final piece for the evening will be Mozart’s Symphony No. 27. I hope you enjoy.”</p><p>She straightened in her seat, as Malfoy robotically reached to nudge the Tchaikovsky aside to prepare for the Mozart. He closed his eyes slightly too long to be considered a blink before looking up at Dumbledore. Hermione also took a moment as she looked up at the conductor. Maybe she had self-doubt in her playing, but she was ready to play. When Dumbledore swept his gaze around the Orchestra with a small smile to make sure they were ready, she found herself smiling back at him.</p>
<hr/><p>Hermione let out a deep breath and grinned as the applause rang on. She survived the first concert more or less, and nothing too bad happened. She looked out at the high golden ceilings, remembering the first time she had been entranced by the hall and wondering if she would ever get to play a concert there.</p><p>As she brought her eyes down to look into the audience and try to find her parents, she spotted a blond man who looked a lot like Draco glaring at her from the balcony. Hermione blinked at his harsh expression and quickly moved her eyes to the beautiful woman next to him. She was applauding but had a more curious expression on her face.</p><p>The applause began to peter out, and Hermione moved to sit back in her seat as Dumbledore left the stage. She didn’t dare look next to her as the other members of the Orchestra began to talk to their stand partners and congratulate them on a successful concert. Hermione quickly scooped up her copy of the music and disappeared into the crowd of high school students exiting the stage.</p><p>It had been a successful concert, she was starving, and she really needed to hurry home and finish her essay that was due the next day. She didn’t have the time or energy to waste on a boy whose whole family was so intent on hating her apparently.</p><p>Usually she finished her school work at least a day in advance, but she had had so many tests to study for that it looked like her essay was going to turn into an all-nighter kind of paper. She had worked on it a bit earlier today, so hopefully she wouldn’t be up too late. Hermione followed the others into the practice room and grinned a little when she saw the other members laughing and celebrating while quickly packing up their belongings.</p><p>Harry had already put his cello away and rushed towards her. His bow tie was completely undone, and his hair was messier than she had ever seen it, but his grin was the same. “We did it!” he exclaimed as he picked her up and spun her around.</p><p>She couldn’t help but laugh while shrieking. “Harry James Potter! Put me down! I swear if you break my violin, I will come after you!”</p><p>Fortunately, she made it safely back on the ground. Ron also came up and just gave the two of them a hug. “No need to make any threats right now, ‘Mione. There are witnesses around.”</p><p>Ginny rushed up to them with shining eyes. “My little violists only made one mistake. I’m so proud.”</p><p>“I think it was all because you terrorized them at the last second, Gin. You sounded just like your mum at that point,” teased Harry.</p><p>Undoing her bun, she tossed her long red hair in the cellist’s face. “I still need to work on my mum impression, but whatever it takes.”</p><p>Ron rolled his eyes and just held up his viola case. “Let’s get out of here. I’m starving, and it’s going to take forever to get out of the parking deck.”</p><p>“You guys go ahead, I still need to pack up and I need to get my laptop out of the lockers,” Hermione said as she shook her head at her friends’ antics.</p><p>Harry frowned. “We can wait for you.”</p><p>She shook her head. “It’s fine. I’ll be leaving with my parents anyways. I’ll see you all at school tomorrow.” Hermione waved goodbye as everyone rushed out of the rehearsal space.</p><p>The room was quickly emptying, and a few people nodded at her as she made her way towards her case. Theo and Daphne called out their congratulations on a successful concert, Neville waved goodbye as he wheeled his bass out, and even Zabini granted her a smile as he gracefully made his way past her. By the time Hermione carefully packed up her violin, she as completely alone in the rehearsal space.</p><p>She took a moment to appreciate the stillness. There was one case in the far corner, but no one else was around. Maybe someone had decided to see their parents or go to the bathroom before packing up? She turned off all the lights except for one before walking out the doors and taking a right instead of a left. There was a wall of lockers lining the hallway, with larger ones on the bottom and smaller ones towards the top. Many of them held things belonging to the Symphony members, but one of the smaller ones towards the top had been available before the concert, and Hermione had asked Neville to help her safely stow away her laptop. Unfortunately, she was way too short to reach the locker. Even Neville had had to reach a bit to tip her laptop in.</p><p>Hermione put her violin case down, and spotted a small step ladder in the corner. Perfect. She had just managed to move the ladder into place when she heard a loud bang down the hallway.</p><p>No one else was around backstage, and she could barely hear audience members making their way out of the hall by this point. Had something fallen?</p><p>She padded her way down the hallway, but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Hermione was reaching the end and found herself near the antechamber Hagrid had shown her earlier. She was about to turn around when she realized that the door was ajar and loud voices were coming from inside. She ducked around the corner and realized it wasn’t loud voices. It was just one loud voice.</p><p>“Did you hear me, Draco? How dare you lie to us?” a voice that oozed privilege and old money was currently blasting down the hallway.</p><p>“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Father. I told you I was first stand. That isn’t a lie,” replied a steady voice. She barely recognized it belonging to Malfoy. She had heard his warm voice directed to his mother on the phone call at Slytherin Prep, the teasing one he had had when she had first met him, and the derisive tone he used after he found out she was Concertmaster. This was one was stiff and formal.</p><p>The loud voice transitioned to a hiss and sounded deadlier than any yelling. “Do not be smart with me. You led us to believe you were Concertmaster. You’re lucky that your mother and I didn’t tell the other parents about you being Concertmaster. It is impolite to boast, and we wanted to surprise the other parents when they saw that our son was the Concertmaster of not only the Slytherin Prep Orchestra but of Hogwarts as well. Imagine our surprise when our son was already sitting in his seat, and a girl we had never seen before comes on stage to tune the Orchestra. I’m glad we sat in the balcony. I don’t think we could have seen you from our usual seats, Draco.”</p><p>A gentle voice cut in, “Lucius.”</p><p>“And I know you missed that note in the third movement of the Tchaikovsky, and your bow division in the Mozart was atrocious, and what on earth was that stunt in the beginning with the sheet music? I have never been so mortified.”</p><p>Malfoy coughed. “What do you mean?”</p><p>“Don’t deny it. You have never been clumsy, Draco. Not only have you grown up with sheet music and stands, but you are a Malfoy. I know you dropped that music on purpose when that girl froze. How dare you embarrass us like that? You might as well have dropped your violin on stage while you were at it.”</p><p>Hermione blinked. Malfoy had dropped the sheet music on purpose? Why? There was no way he had meant to help her, right?</p><p>The gentle voice, which must have belonged to Malfoy’s mother cut in again, a bit firmer this time. “Lucius, you know there are drafts in the hall. It could have simply been an accident.”</p><p>A cold laugh echoed in the room. “An accident, Narcissa? No, I saw it. Draco clearly dropped the sheet music on purpose.”</p><p>A soft sigh filled the silence. “It was a lovely concert, dear. Although, I was a bit surprised that Dumbledore chose Tchaikovsky’s 5<sup>th</sup> symphony to begin the season.” She paused. “The girl was good, and I know you were impressed by her, Lucius. Where does she go to school, Draco? I don’t believe I’ve seen her before.”</p><p>“She’s a Gryffindor, Mother,” Malfoy stiffly replied.</p><p>Lucius Malfoy snorted but Narcissa just hummed in response. “Well that explains why we haven’t seen her before. Draco, you played very well. I do think it’s the best I’ve seen you play in a concert. And the pieces were quite difficult.”</p><p>A scoff sounded at that. “They should have been playing this at Slytherin Draco’s freshman year. I need to speak with Severus about the repertoire along with a few other things.” There was a pause. “Draco, I don’t think I need to remind you about the Concerto competition in the Spring? If you’re going to lose the position of Concertmaster to some girl who doesn’t even go to Slytherin Prep, or even Ravenclaw, I expect you to make up for it.”</p><p>“Lucius, that’s enough. I think that it’s time for us to leave, and the crowd should have thinned out by now. Draco, I asked Mr. Dobbs to make sure we had your favorite for dinner. It was truly a wonderful concert, darling.”</p><p>Hermione jumped at the sound of footsteps and rushed back down the hallway towards the lockers. Her heart was still racing as she quickly climbed the precarious step ladder to the top locker. She kept one hand on the ladder as she used the other to quickly unlock the locker and grab the small bag with her laptop and a couple notebooks.</p><p>She had just managed to close the locker door when she smelled the familiar scent of cologne. Looking down, she met grey eyes looking up at her.</p><p>“Not bad for a first concert, Granger,” he murmured.</p><p>Hermione just blinked back down at him and was thankful that she wore pants for this recital. She was quite high up on the step ladder, and a skirt would have been a bit precarious. She noticed that he had a tired and small smile on his face. His tie was unknotted and his hair was a bit rumpled and fell into his face a little bit. His suit jacket was loosely draped over the arm holding onto the step ladder. Draco Malfoy was quite handsome.</p><p>She realized she should probably reply instead of ogling her nemesis of a stand partner. “Not bad, Malfoy.” Her wrist started to hurt with the weight of her bag, and she was suddenly aware that she needed both hands to make it down the step ladder unless she wanted to break her neck.</p><p>Malfoy offered her his free right hand to come down, and Hermione hesitated a bit before taking it. His hand was much larger than hers and was warm compared to her freezing fingers due to the chilly air backstage. She gripped a bit tightly as she made her way down, and he lightly squeezed back as she made it down the last step.</p><p>She looked up at him once she made her way down, and he nodded as he let go of her hand. “Have a good evening, Granger,” he murmured before turning towards the back rehearsal room.</p><p>Hermione couldn’t help but watch as he walked away and noticed him flexing the fingers of his right hand. Self-doubt, struggle, Fate. She replayed the conversation she had just overheard. Maybe Dumbledore had a few students in mind. Shaking her head, she quickly shrugged her violin case on and fled before Malfoy made his way out of the rehearsal room or before she ran into his parents.</p><p>She was still lost in her thoughts when she emerged into the lobby. Hermione blinked at the brighter lights and froze when she saw the blond man who looked like Malfoy and the beautiful woman next to him. Those had to be Malfoy’s parents. They were chatting with a few other adults, but the man was starting to turn towards her. Hermione bit her lip and quickly turned right and almost walked straight into her parents.</p><p>“Hermione! Oh, it was absolutely wonderful! Your dad may have fallen asleep at one point, but you were terrific!” her mum was beaming and quickly took her bag from her.</p><p>“I didn’t fall asleep! I was just enjoying the music with my eyes closed. The lights were a bit too bright for my taste. You were wonderful, Hermione,” exclaimed her dad as he took her violin case from her and wrapped an arm around her.</p><p>“I think we should bring your grandparents next time. I’m sure they would enjoy it. Although, let’s talking more in a bit. We have an early morning tomorrow.”</p><p>“What was the name of that first piece again? It sounded quite beautiful. Did you play it in the apartment before?”</p><p>Hermione laughed a bit and tried to answer her parents’ questions as they made their way out of the building. On the ride home, she took out her laptop to work on her essay, but she was a little preoccupied with what had happened earlier. It had been an enlightening concert in more ways than one. Shaking her head, she forced herself to flesh out her essay more. But the one thing she kept noticing was that despite the evening autumn chill, her left hand was still a little warm.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thank you for the comments, kudos, and for reading! Peep a small reference to P&amp;P if you can find it! </p><p>Apologies for the not terrific writing :( I don't have a lot of time to write, so I'm just going for getting chapters posted when I can!</p><p>Hope you're enjoying the story so far!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. A Draco Malfoy Interlude</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Music for this chapter: Arrival of the Birds + Transformation by the Cinematic Orchestra (originally from Crimson Wing but also used in the Theory of Everything)</p><p>This chapter has some overlap with the next chapter (when I get around to writing it), but thought I’d give Draco a chance to show his thoughts here!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Draco quickly ducked his head to hide a yawn as he continued to type his history notes. Professor Binns had the driest lectures, and most of the class fell asleep at some point. He looked around with a smirk. Pansy was resting her head on her left hand while her right hand pretended to write, and Goyle wasn’t even pretending to take notes. After years of surviving dinner parties and attending boring grownup meetings, Draco managed to stay awake for the most part. His recent bout of insomnia wasn’t helping though.</p><p>The bell rang and the students immediately jumped up, grabbing their notes and bags as the final class of the day ended. He took a sip of his now cold coffee and quickly saved his notes before closing his laptop. Rolling his neck, he breathed a sigh of relief that he didn’t have anything in particular to do that day. No soccer practice, no midterms, no new HYSO music yet, and the repertoire for the final round of Regionals had yet to be released. Besides several hours of homework waiting for him, he had a free day for once. Shrugging on his coat, he thought of what he could do with his time. Maybe go to the library and pick out a book? Or go for a run? Or practice some violin?</p><p>He was just closing his backpack when a pair of expensive heels tapped into view. Feeling a smirk slide into place, he looked up to see an annoyed Pansy Parkinson scowling down at him for once. “Can I help you, Pans?”</p><p>She opened her mouth to speak before snapping it closed. His old friend leaned down and squinted a bit at him. “I was going to use you to change the details of one of the school assemblies next month, because there is no way President Lestrange will listen to the suggestions of the girl Class President. You’re my best bet since you’re the boy Class President, related to him, and you’re infuriatingly talented with words, Draco.”</p><p>He frowned as he stood up from his seat. Everyone despised Slytherin’s President and secretly hoped he would step down sooner rather than later. Draco hated it when his crazy aunt and uncle came to dinner, but thankfully they didn’t visit too often. He really didn’t want to play nice in front of the evil man today. “You said was. Do you not need my help anymore?”</p><p>Pansy straightened her posture and shook her head as she looked up at him. “I do need your help, but you look much too tired to be dealing with the man right now. I’ll come up with a few points and send you an email tonight. I can grab a spot on his secretary’s calendar in the morning if that’s alright with you?”</p><p>“That’s fine. Let me know if there’s anything you want to change in particular. I think we might have them over for dinner, and it would be easy to slip any suggestions in a dinner conversation.” Draco picked up his bag and gestured for Pansy to lead the way out of the classroom.</p><p>She turned around as they left the room and fixed him with a hard stare. “Do you want to go eat a salad?”</p><p>Draco felt himself relax slightly and shook his head fondly as he looked down at Pansy. Her hair was perfectly straightened, and her face had impeccable makeup that would be more at home on a fashion model instead of a high school girl. Pansy was someone who understood him. He reached up to loosen his tie a fraction now that school was officially over. “I think I’m fine for today, Pans.”</p><p>Pansy’s mother had been a former beauty pageant queen who was obsessed with healthy food and molding her only daughter into the perfect girl. When the Parkinsons hosted any events, Draco’s mother always made sure that they ate at home before going to dinner. Pansy’s only outward rebellion against her mother had been to play flute, which a distant relative had introduced to her when she was little.</p><p>‘Salad’ had been their code word when they were little to ask Mr. Dobbs to give them dessert when Pansy came over to Malfoy Manor. Once they were able to drive around on their own, it became the cue to go get burgers and butterbeer, a lovely drink invented by the owners of The Three Broomsticks, and vent about whatever problem they had. Pansy even knew a few things that Draco hadn’t told Theo just because his best friend wouldn’t understand. Just as he knew Pansy wouldn’t reveal his secrets, he would never reveal hers.</p><p>As much as Daphne hated Pansy’s aloofness and sarcasm, Draco appreciated Pansy’s wit and bite. It was when she was vulnerable that things got worrying, like when she had to say goodbye to her French boyfriend, who was a secret to everyone but Draco. Pansy’s mother would have a fit if she ever found out Pansy had fallen for a scholarship student at Beauxbatons. When they had first returned to Slytherin Prep, Pansy had used the ‘salad’ code every couple of days to the point where Draco had gotten sick of butterbeer for once.</p><p>“Everything okay, you two?” Blaise came up with a raised eyebrow and discerning eyes.</p><p>Draco sighed. The two of them were too nosy right now. Yes, he had had a terrible couple of days following the concert, but he really didn’t want to deal with anything today. He didn’t need to unload his problems right now to Pansy or Blaise, who had his own issues with his mother and slew of step-fathers. Everyone was held to high standards at Slytherin Prep. Well, Theo’s father didn’t quite care what he did at all, but Theo already held himself to high standards without any outside pressure. Today was definitely not the day to vent his frustrations. “I’m fine. I think I’m just going to go practice since I don’t have too much to do today.”</p><p>Blaise nodded before turning to ask Pansy about something from their English class earlier. Draco turned around and followed the mass of students crowding down the staircase and out the main doors of the humanities building. He took a right as everyone else headed in the opposite direction towards the parking lots.</p><p>It was a cold afternoon, but the sky was a bright blue without any clouds. Draco was suddenly taken by how pretty the campus was. He was used to pretty buildings and grand landscapes, but sometimes it struck him just how pretty Slytherin Prep was. He was just looking away from a perfectly manicured set of hedges when he caught sight of Theo dragging his cello behind him and Daphne laughing beside him.</p><p>Waving a hand, Draco raised an eyebrow as the two drew closer. “Where are you two off to?”</p><p>Daphne frowned and reached up to button the top of his coat. “You boys are going to catch a cold if you don’t put on your coat correctly.”</p><p>Sniggering at his mothering girlfriend, Theo gestured towards the science building. “We’re going to help Professor Slughorn with a few things.”</p><p>“Slughorn? But he teaches Chemistry, and we’re taking Biology now?”</p><p>Daphne smoothed down his collar as she finished buttoning his coat. “Oh, it’s for the Science club. He also said he would give us extra credit somehow even though he isn’t our teacher anymore.”</p><p>Draco blinked. “You two have perfect grades in Biology right now! Why would you ever need extra credit?”</p><p>Shrugging, Theo replied, “You never know what might happen. Besides, everyone knows that Slughorn writes the best recommendation letters. I have a summer program I have my eye on, and Slughorn is on the board of directors. Do you want to come help?”</p><p>Draco groaned a bit. He probably should go, and Theo was right. Slughorn’s connections and recommendation letters were golden. But he really didn’t want to do anything today. “You two are such nerds. I’ve decided I’m taking today off, so I think I’ll pass.”</p><p>The couple waved goodbye, and started laughing about something else. Draco watched them go and mused that they really were quite good together. Daphne was one of the few students with pretty much a perfect family, which was perfect for Theo. Dr. Nott wasn’t exactly the nurturing type towards his son, and Theo tended to put a lot of pressure on himself.</p><p>Draco was glad Daphne had buttoned up his coat for him, as the wind picked up while he made his way farther into campus to reach the Arts Hall. He could feel a small smile breaking out at the sight of his favorite building and was glad none of the underclassmen were around to see him break his facade. He had a reputation to uphold as a charismatic class president and captain of the soccer team. As much as he tried to play off his violin playing as a product of his parents’ wishes, it really was a passion of his.</p><p>Opening a side door that tended to stick shut if one didn’t jiggle it properly with practiced ease, he trekked up a couple flights of stairs to reach the practice rooms. Peeking into each window, he frowned as he found that they were all occupied. The first one had a large harp, and he didn’t even have to see the messy blonde hair to know it was the Lovegood girl in there. Tracey Davis was practicing her clarinet in the second room, and Adrian Pucey was playing his trombone in the last room.</p><p>Sighing, Draco went to the locker room to grab his violin and thought about where he could go. He didn’t have anything he needed to practice in particular, especially since they didn’t get the new HYSO music until the next practice, but he had wanted to unwind and play a couple things for fun. Maybe he should just go home.</p><p>The heels of his loafers clicked in the vast lobby of the building, and he paused by the doors to the main hall. Silently easing one door open, he strode through the empty antechamber before opening the main doors. He grinned to see that it was empty, which meant that the middle school had finished their fall musical. Today was probably the only day it would be unoccupied until after the New Year with various groups using the stage for end of term performances.</p><p>Draco unbuttoned his coat as he made his way down the aisle and was glad to see that the shades on the massive windows had been drawn back to allow natural light to filter in. He quickly made his way onto the stage and grabbed a music stand from a back storage room. As he set his case down on the stage to unpack, the HYSO music for the Fall Concert fell out with a soft <em>smack</em> that echoed in the large hall.</p><p>He sighed as he bent down to pick up the music. Maybe he hadn’t needed to drop the sheet music for Granger. He had seen the nerves evident on her face backstage, and her back had been rigid as she had bowed to the crowd. Really, he had just wanted to get the concert over with after feeling his father’s eyes glaring into him the moment he had walked out on stage with the rest of the Orchestra. It also didn’t hurt that he had felt like he needed to pay his debt to Granger for waking him up at the Regionals Auditions, and Draco hated feeling like he owed anything to anyone. If he had been considered ineligible for Regionals because he had fallen asleep… well he didn’t want to think about that.</p><p>Frowning at the Tchaikovsky in his hand, he thought back to Dumbledore’s words. What did the old man mean when he based his music choices off of the students? He wondered how well Dumbledore knew his students, especially since the old conductor wasn’t tied to a specific school and hadn’t been a private clarinet instructor in over twenty years. How would he know what went on in their minds? And how had he accurately read his Assistant Concertmaster?</p><p>Draco shook his head. He definitely wasn’t going to think about that today. Slipping the sheet music back into his case, he pulled out his violin. His mind went back to the previous weekend as he tuned, and he had to acknowledge that it had been a very successful concert.</p><p>His thoughts went through the evening, and he smirked when he remembered seeing Granger teetering on that ladder. She had looked absolutely ridiculous with her once neat bun beginning to unravel and rosin powder all over her pants while getting things out of a locker that was obviously much too high up for her. And her hand had been so cold when he had helped her down.</p><p>Draco paused when he realized he had been playing a perfectly tuned E longer than necessary. His thoughts continued to linger on her shining eyes as she shook hands with Dumbledore at the end of the concert, and he had noticed her come alive as she played during the concert. There was even that moment when she had seen him while on the ladder and after he had helped her down. She had been looking at him curiously instead of defensively for once, and he found he had quite liked it.</p><p>He blinked at that thought and pulled out his phone. Now was not the time to think about girls, and especially not about a girl he needed to beat. He would be happy if he could last at least the rest of the year without another lecture from his father. Searching through a couple playlists, Draco picked a few pop songs and played through a few, figuring out notes and bowings as he went. The notes rang in the hall, and Draco smirked at the thought of someone coming in to hear pop music come out from the grand Slytherin hall.</p><p>Playing was something that had always relaxed him, and he could feel the tension of the past few days leaving his shoulders. He didn’t need to think about anything else beyond the music. After a few more songs, Draco’s fingers naturally transitioned into something he had been working on for fun. The melody was quite simple, but he was running through different variations and trying to make it longer.</p><p>He felt calm for the first time that week, and calmer than he had felt since the beginning of the school year. Draco smiled as he sank into the music and continued to play with his eyes closed. It was only when he felt completely relaxed that he finished experimenting with one last variation and finished the last note with one last vibrato.</p><p>“Well, I haven’t heard that before,” drawled a voice behind him.</p><p>Draco startled a bit and opened his eyes as he turned around. He quickly schooled his expression. “Hello, Professor Snape. I thought the hall was empty this afternoon.”</p><p>The dark-haired man stepped onto the stage and raised an eyebrow. “It is free until the elementary school begins practicing for their Christmas pageant tomorrow. Now, what exactly were you playing just now, Draco?”</p><p>Resisting the urge to frown, the Slytherin stepped towards his case. “Nothing specific. I was just playing some notes here and there.”</p><p>Professor Snape frowned as Draco quickly began to pack up his violin. “Your father wouldn’t be pleased if he saw you playing for fun right now.” The conductor paused before continuing. “Have you decided what concerto you are going to use for the competition?”</p><p>Draco picked up his case and his backpack. “I was going to figure that out after the next HYSO rehearsal. I didn’t want my choice to overlap with any possible music from the Winter concert.”</p><p>Shaking his head, Snape just pinched the bridge of his nose. “Alright, I’ll give you a free pass until next week, but you will have to face that problem sooner rather than later. Professor Karakaroff will have heard from your Father by now about your HYSO position, and you know you have a strict private teacher, Draco.”</p><p>His sense of ease completely broken, Draco willed his face to be completely placid. “Of course, Professor Snape. I’ll be completely prepared for the Concerto Competition.”</p>
<hr/><p>Draco closed his textbook and glanced at the clock. It was just past one in the morning. Groaning, he took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. He was exhausted, but he knew that sleep was going to elude him tonight, especially after the nap he had taken earlier in the day. Settling his glasses back on his nose, he reached for his phone.</p><p>The soccer groupchat had planned a group workout the next morning before school started, and he needed to go to maintain his captain position and make sure some of the players actually completed the workout. He had also agreed to tutor a middle school student the next morning during his free period, and Pansy needed him for a meeting with President Lestrange’s assistant during their lunch break.</p><p>Sighing, he set an alarm on his phone for an ungodly time and pulled on a hoodie. He was a little hungry, and he needed to relax if he was hoping to get any sleep that night. Draco quickly packed up his bag for the next morning and carefully left his bedroom.</p><p>He didn’t need to worry about waking up his parents, as they were in a different wing of the manor, but he didn’t want to wake up any of the staff in the middle of the night. Quietly making his way down the stairs to the kitchen, he made sure no one else was inside before grabbing an apple and a box of cereal. Slipping the apple into the pocket of his hoodie, he also snagged a glass of water before successfully exiting the kitchen.</p><p>Draco padded down a few corridors and down a flight of stairs to the home theater. It was completely soundproofed, and the staff had found him asleep in there multiple times over the past few months. He was just glad they hadn’t told his parents yet.</p><p>Taking a bite of his apple, Draco looked through the bookshelves of films his family had accumulated over the years. He needed something slow and calming, and preferably with a great soundtrack. His fingers aimlessly tapped on the shelves as his eyes took in various titles. Ah, perfect.</p><p>He pulled out a copy of a nature documentary and quickly slid it into the machine. <em>Arrival of the birds</em> was one of his favorite pieces, and he hadn’t listened to it in a while. Maybe it would help him turn off his mind enough to get some much-needed sleep tonight.</p><p>Draco opened the box of cereal and stretched out on one of the couches in the room, smiling at the familiar notes filling the room. He had had a hard time maintaining a straight face when he had heard the piece being played at the end of the Stephen Hawking film he had seen with Theo and Daphne. He could feel his body sinking further into the couch as the notes trailed off and the narration continued.</p>
<hr/><p>Knocking on the door, Draco forced a smile on his face as the old lady looked up with a frown. The name plate read Irma Pince. “Hello, Madame Pince. I’m dropping off a few things on behalf of my mother, Narcissa Malfoy.”</p><p>The old lady’s frown deepened. “It’s about time. I’ve been waiting on this for over a month.”</p><p>Forcing his smile to stay put, Draco handed over a folder. “I apologize for the delay then. My mother only received word that additional paperwork was needed a couple days ago.”</p><p>Madame Pince snatched the folder and looked through the papers. “Well, if she wants to start a new initiative here, she should have been aware that more paperwork was needed. We’ve sent multiple letters to the address on file.”</p><p>Resisting the urge to remind her that email was a thing now, Draco just began to back away towards the door. “Well, if that’s all. Have a good day Madame Pince.”</p><p>The door was closing behind him as he caught her muttering, “Don’t these children have better things to do with their Saturday mornings? First the annoying girl who thought she could just waltz in here and practice whenever she wanted, and now this boy who is dropping off files that were due a month ago. The state of the world these days.”</p><p>Draco frowned. Someone was practicing here this morning? They had just received the music for the next concert a couple days ago. Where would they even rehearse? A fair number of Symphony musicians reserved the practice rooms for private lessons on the weekends before performances. The only time Symphony musicians weren’t in the rehearsal rooms were during the HYSO rehearsals.</p><p>It was probably one of those Ravenclaw girls who wanted the ambience of the Hogsmeade Center for the Arts to practice in. He idly wondered if it was that Marietta Edgecombe girl that both Daphne and Pansy hated. Well, if he was already here on a Saturday, at least he could get some gossip out of it to make the Slytherin girls happy.</p><p> Draco made his way into the lobby and spotted someone familiar. “Hello, Mr. Greengrass. How are you this morning?”</p><p>Daphne’s father smiled at him and shook his hand. “Hello, Draco. I just finished a lesson this morning, but I’m looking forward to spending the rest of my day with my family. Why are you here on a Saturday?”</p><p>“Oh, I had to drop something off for my mother. I think I also left something behind at rehearsal the other day, so I was going to check if it was still here.” Draco easily spun the small lie, as Mr. Greengrass didn’t need to know he was snooping for gossip.</p><p>The man nodded as he buttoned his jacket. “You’re a good son, Draco. I think you’re the second person I didn’t expect to see here today. There’s a girl practicing in the back rehearsal room as well,” he remarked before focusing back on Draco. “I expect to see you with your parents at dinner next week. It has been a while since we’ve had your family over.”</p><p>Draco smiled. “I’ll be there, sir. Will you be able to make it to our New Year’s Eve celebration?”</p><p>“We will. I was able to rearrange my schedule in order to be in the country this year. I’m looking forward to the event at Malfoy Manor,” replied Mr. Greengrass with a smile as he bid the young violinist goodbye.</p><p>The back rehearsal room? That room was always freezing, and it wasn’t the ideal place to practice. Curiosity piqued, Draco made his way down the different corridors until he reached the closed doors. He carefully eased it open silently before raising an eyebrow.</p><p>The girl had her back to the door, hair tied back in a single braid down her back as she played, but it was obvious who she was. Draco blinked. Why was Granger here on a Saturday?</p><p>He leaned on the door and listened to her play. She was good, and he had known Granger could play. It was rather annoying how good she was, and he realized that it was the first time he had really heard her play since that first rehearsal, when she had somehow memorized the Tchaikovsky when he refused to turn the pages. In hindsight, it was quite horrible of him.</p><p>Draco recognized the tune she was playing and realized she was practicing the solo for the next concert. It was technically perfect. Her vibrato was textbook and her bow division was well distributed. However, there was something missing.</p><p>Usually, he wouldn’t try to help, but she was playing the solo of his favorite piece. Sighing, Draco glanced at his watch and quickly made a decision. He cleared his throat when she finished and allowed a smirk to sneak onto his face when her brown eyes blinked back at him in surprise. He hoped he wouldn’t regret his decision. After all, it was for the greater good of the Orchestra.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Ahhhh thank you so much for all the lovely comments and kudos! It's nice to know I don't write into the void!</p><p>Oh and the P&amp;P reference from the last chapter (which a few managed to catch!!) was the hand squeeze and flex hehe</p><p>Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. How to Train Your Dragon ;)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Music recommendation for this chapter: Romantic Flight by John Powell (from How to Train Your Dragon)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ginny looked vaguely nauseated as she watched her brother and his best friend scarf down their lunches. “I don’t understand how you two manage not to choke,” she muttered as she took a bite of her own sandwich.</p><p>Looking slightly abashed, Harry paused mid-bite to drink from his water bottle. Ron just continued to devour his second sandwich. Dean Thomas, Ginny’s former boyfriend and another varsity soccer player, just shrugged as he shook his head in amusement. “We’re not all animals like them, Ginny,” he snorted</p><p>Rolling her eyes, the redhead reached across the table to hand her older brother a napkin. “Dean, you aren’t exactly the neatest high school boy. Did you ever manage to find your chemistry textbook from last year?”</p><p>Harry laughed after he finished chewing. “Didn’t he tell you? Dean got roped into doing a lab experiment with Seamus for extra credit and they may have set their books on fire, ‘by accident’ of course,” he finished with air quotes.</p><p>Ginny giggled and zeroed in on the suddenly quiet Junior. “No, he conveniently forgot to tell me.”</p><p>Dean leaned back in his chair and groaned. “It was not my fault! Seamus was single-handedly responsible for 5 fire alarms last year and is the reason why we have fire drills every month now.”</p><p>“Yes, and they always manage to schedule them at annoying times,” grumbled Hermione as she continued to dutifully do her math homework while eating lunch. She looked up as she neatly boxed in her last answer. “I feel like they always manage to have them right before I have a test.”</p><p>Pointing his finger at her ever-present stack of books, Ron managed to swallow before mentioning, “I’ve never seen you without your books, ‘Mione. I’ve definitely seen you with your nose in a book during those fire drills, so the timing shouldn’t be an issue. By the way, what’s your excuse for doing homework at lunch today? Did you finally forget to finish the night before?”</p><p>Primly shutting her notebook and stacking it on top of her textbooks, Hermione reached for her apple. “For the record, it’s homework due next week. I wanted to get it out of the way since we’re getting new sheet music at HYSO tonight, and I want to spend this weekend practicing.”</p><p>Dean groaned as Hermione started to stow away her books in her bag. “I feel like HYSO is all I ever hear about. You guys talk about it all the time, Mr. Weasley won’t stop referencing the Fall concert you just had, and Zabini won’t shut up about it at practice.”</p><p>Snorting, Ginny leaned in at that. “The Slytherins talk about their precious Orchestra during soccer practice?”</p><p>“Well, they usually try to tone down their nerdiness, but they were talking about it at the dinner we had after our final game of the season.” He paused dramatically before grinning, “Which, of course we won.”</p><p>Harry rolled his eyes. “Yes, thank you for telling us for the 48<sup>th</sup> time this week, Dean.”</p><p>Still smiling broadly, Dean continued, “They usually don’t chat about HYSO, but Blaise and Theo were debating about what the repertoire would be for the Winter Concert.”</p><p>Ron paused mid-bite and frowned. “Is it a good thing that we’ve been wondering about the same things as those Slytherins?”</p><p>Shaking her head, Hermione snuck a cookie off of Ginny’s plate. “It doesn’t matter, and we’re going to find out tonight anyways.” She looked over at Dean. “But, out of curiosity, did you find out anything interesting?”</p><p>He rolled his eyes. “You are all insane with this music stuff. I mean, I’m all for it as your resident Gryffindor percussionist, but at least I wasn’t insane enough to audition for HYSO.”</p><p>“Honestly, you would’ve gotten in Dean. You should audition next year,” chirped Ginny. She didn’t notice Harry taking an aggressive bite of his sandwich, but Hermione did. That was interesting. She looked over at Ron who was completely oblivious and leaning back in his chair. Very interesting</p><p>“One, I’m not insane. Two, I’m not that good. Three, I feel like it’s going to take up too much time, and I’d rather not be over-committed. I don’t know how some of you do it.” The bell rang, and Dean pushed back from the table. “But Blaise said that his mother mentioned a famous international musician was going to be the soloist this year. Theo thinks it’s Celestina Warbeck, and Blaise was saying that he thinks Viktor Krum was going to play since he’s apparently going to be in town that weekend.”</p><p>A loud crash sounded as Ron lost his balance and tipped over his chair. They all rose to help him but he just sprang up with a shocked expression. “Viktor Krum? The Viktor Krum? The famous violinist Viktor Krum?”</p><p>Dean cautiously picked up Ron’s chair for him and nodded. “I’m assuming it’s him? Not exactly a common name.”</p><p>“Honestly, our mum is going to have an even more violent reaction if Celestina Warbeck is going to be singing at the Winter Concert,” muttered Ginny as she helped dust off her older brother.</p>
<hr/><p>Dumbledore smiled serenely at the chaos in his office as he finished making a few notes on the score he had opened a half hour earlier. Hagrid was opening boxes of sheet music that had been express shipped the night before while Madame Pince was meticulously counting packets of sheet music.</p><p>“Thank you again, Madame Pince, for helping Hagrid and me last minute. I do appreciate it greatly.” The conductor stood up, closing his score and reaching for his baton case.</p><p>The strict woman nodded as she set aside the sheet music for the second violins. “Of course, Albus. It’s terrible that both Celestina Warbeck and Viktor Krum cancelled last minute. It would have been quite a performance to have two world-class stars in one program.”</p><p>Hagrid began to start repacking the organized sheet music back into the boxes and grinned as he caught sight of the title neatly printed on the sheet music. “This is a great last-minute decision, Dumbledore.”</p><p>The older man took a stack of sheet music and helped load the last couple boxes. “Thank you, Hagrid. I do think at least a few members of the community will enjoy the repertoire, especially after I saw how many young Slytherins signed up for their Elementary School Orchestra this fall. Maybe we’ll inspire a few more young boys and girls to pick up an instrument.”</p><p>It was only an hour later that Dumbledore walked up to the podium after Miss Granger had tuned the Orchestra. “Welcome back, and I hope you all had a restful week after such a successful concert. Now, I do know that some of you are anxious to receive the music for the next concert. It is typically HYSO tradition to have a guest performer for the Winter Concert, and this year we’ll be having something special. So, without further ado, drumroll please,” he requested of a young Mr. Finch-Fletchly who obliged with a smile.</p><p>The conductor was amused as everyone else in the Orchestra began to shuffle their feet, adding to the lovely drumroll being performed in the back. He raised his hands and announced, “There will be no guest performer this year.”</p>
<hr/><p>Hermione blinked at the announcement. She heard a few gasps and looked around. Ron seemed to be muttering about a certain Bulgarian musician and more than a few heads were bent whispering to their stand partners, but the Slytherins had the most interesting reactions.</p><p>There was a low chuckle from next to her, and she looked up to see Malfoy neatly folding what looked to be several hundred dollars and slipping it into his pocket. “Well, this was unexpected.”</p><p>Blaise was looking at Dumbledore in shock before turning to his friend. “Did your parents tell you something?”</p><p>The assistant Concertmaster simply shook his head with a smirk. “You and Theo were the ones claiming to have inside information and deciding to bet. I think you were the one who insisted I facilitate the bet, and you’re well aware of the Slytherin rules, Blaise.”</p><p>Hermione looked across the Orchestra to find an annoyed-looking Theo Nott slumped in his seat and a confused Harry staring back at her with a shrug. She focused her attention back on the conductor who was reaching down into a large cardboard box he had carried to the podium earlier.  </p><p>“I know that you may be disappointed, but we do have a couple exciting things planned. First, I have a few conferences to attend in the New Year, so we are planning to hold the concert in December right before the holidays and not hold rehearsals in January.” He paused as a fresh wave of exclamations took over the Orchestra. “In keeping with the holiday spirit, I thought it would be good to do something for the lovely Hogsmeade community. We will be playing a series of excerpts from famous films and have accompanying clips play on a screen above the Orchestra. We’ll have a mix of holiday movies, famous films, and a few for younger children.” More than a few people looked excited at playing film music, but a couple members groaned.</p><p>Zabini cleared his throat. “Please, sir. The Slytherins have played the Pirates of the Caribbean and the Lord of the Rings Suite for the past four years. We aren’t playing those for this concert, right?”</p><p>“I’m sorry, Mr. Zabini. The decision was made a little last minute, so Professor Snape helped us by letting us borrow sheet music from Slytherin. We’ll be playing music from Pirates and the Lord of the Rings, but I managed to get a couple other pieces as well.”</p><p>Dumbledore handed out the sheet music to the first stands, and Hermione dutifully handed Malfoy two packets before passing the rest of the stack back to the next stand. She turned around to look at the sheet music and noticed that three were already on the stand while Malfoy was holding onto the fourth still. Looking over the packets on the stand, she grinned at the titles. Along with the Pirates and Lord of the Rings Suite, Dumbledore had also included the suite for <em>The Polar Express</em>.</p><p>“Dragons,” muttered Malfoy as he casually dropped the last of the sheet music onto the stand. He had a slight frown on his face, but Hermione noticed the corner of his lip twitching upwards and something shift in his eyes. She realized he was starting to look her way and abruptly shifted her focus to the music he had just placed on the stand.</p><p>“<em>How to Train Your Dragon</em>,” she read out. “Well I could’ve used this a few months ago with Draco Malfoy,” Hermione muttered before she could stop the words from coming out. She froze and hoped her stand partner didn’t hear her.</p><p>“It’s quite hard to train dragons, Granger. I don’t know if you could have managed it,” a low murmur came from her left.</p><p>Bracing herself as she looked up, Hermione was a bit surprised when she met his eyes. There was a light smirk on his face but there wasn’t any malice in his eyes. It seemed like Malfoy was faintly amused by her small quip. Were they actually having a friendly conversation?</p><p>Thankfully Dumbledore started rehearsal and, for a first rehearsal, it was quite good. It may have helped that the sheet music was relatively simpler than older symphonies, most people had heard the music before, and the Slytherins had played half of the music before, but it was still quite good.</p><p>Hermione realized she had a solo in the <em>How to Train Your Dragon</em> piece and managed to sight-read it relatively decently. The suite in particular had some trickier parts, and more than a few sections got lost. This was definitely something everyone was going to have to practice before the next rehearsal.</p><p>Dumbledore clapped his hands with a smile. “That was marvelous for a first run, everyone. Please practice before next week. Oh, and could the inner first stands please remain behind. I have a small announcement for you.”</p><p>Confused, Hermione glanced over at Ginny who just raised an eyebrow back at her before turning around in her seat and threatening drastic measures if the violists didn’t learn the music before next rehearsal. The rest of the Orchestra quickly left the stage, which just left the first stands of the both violin sections, the Weasleys, Theo, and Harry.</p><p>“Now, I do realize that the repertoire is a bit unconventional for HYSO. Would the eight of you be alright performing quartet pieces before we begin the concert? I think it would appease anyone who wanted a bit more of a traditional HYSO Winter Concert,” explained Dumbledore as he looked at the eight musicians.</p><p>Hermione glanced at the others, but everyone seemed to just nod. Malfoy spoke up for the group. “We would be happy to open for the concert. Do you have sheet music for us, sir?”</p><p>“Wonderful! I should have sheet music ready for you by next rehearsal. Please plan to stay an hour after HYSO rehearsal ends, and we’ll hold quartet rehearsals for the eight of you. I am thinking of having Miss Granger, Mr. Malfoy, Miss Weasley, and Mr. Nott play in one quartet and Mr. Zabini, Miss Bones, Mr. Weasley, and Mr. Potter in the other. You are all free to go, thank you for agreeing to do this.”</p>
<hr/><p>Biting her lip as she scribbled in a couple fingering and bowing changes into her music, Hermione wondered how film music could be so complicated. She tested a few other options with the bowings and finally settled on one that felt natural. Maybe she could ask McGonagall for a little help at her next lesson.</p><p>It had already been an hour since she had started practicing at the Hogsmeade Center for the Arts, and Hermione realized she was delaying the inevitable. She flipped to the one page free of any pencil markings and took a deep breath. The solo for <em>How to Train Your Dragon </em>was titled <em>Romantic Flight.</em> While it was pretty and short, it was also very high. Hermione was confused at the odd titles scattered throughout the piece, but didn’t focus too much on them. She raised her violin and set her bow on the strings. Might as well get it over with.</p><p>She played it through a couple times before finding a shifting pattern that worked for her, marking in new fingerings as her left hand grew used to dancing on the fingerboard a certain way. Hermione smiled as she played through it without any mistakes and was just about to run through it one more time when someone cleared their throat behind her. She whirled around with a jump.</p><p>“Not bad, Granger,” Malfoy drawled as he leaned against the door.</p><p>Hermione blinked at the unexpected intruder. “Malfoy? Why are you here?” she asked in confusion. As she continued to stare at him, she was suddenly aware that Draco Malfoy was in slacks, loafers, and an expensive looking coat on a Saturday, while she was in an oversized grey sweater, worn jeans, and a particularly scuffed pair of Converse. Not again, but she really hadn’t expected to see anyone today.</p><p>He just raised an eyebrow. “I had to drop off something for my mother. Why are you practicing in here?”</p><p>“They’re cleaning the main stage, and the other HSO members are giving lessons in the actual practice rooms.” Hermione was confused. Even if he was no longer willing to kill her for the Concertmaster position and was more inclined to share a joke in rehearsal, there was no reason for Draco Malfoy to be talking to her right now.</p><p>The Slytherin looked bemused and straightened up a bit. “Why can’t you practice at home?”</p><p>Hermione shrugged. “The neighbors complain about the noise, and Gryffindor is closed this weekend for some reason. I’ve been trying to find different places to practice, and this was the only free rehearsal space I could think of. The music seemed a bit difficult last rehearsal, so I wanted to get a head start on practicing,” she patiently explained, waiting for him to leave so she could continue to play in peace.</p><p>“Do you want to come to the manor?” he asked, with just the slightest pause at the beginning. His already deep and posh voice seemed to sound even richer as he said the word ‘manor.’</p><p>“I’m sorry?” Hermione wasn’t sure she had heard correctly. The manor?</p><p>Malfoy held up a hand. “Let me rephrase. This room is quite terrible for acoustics, and the manor has a music room and ballroom that I use to help practice solos. It helps me figure out how the sound will travel in a large space like in the actual concert hall. Your solo in rehearsal wasn’t bad, but you aren’t used to trying to project your sound in large places so it might help to practice before the next HYSO rehearsal.”</p><p>“Assuming you aren’t trying to kill me at your fancy house, why are you offering to help me?” Hermione asked, excited at the idea of practicing in a ballroom but also very confused as to why Malfoy would be offering.</p><p>The tall Slytherin looked a bit embarrassed but tipped up his chin as he entered the room. “Granger, that solo is one of the best parts of the movie and I can’t let you ruin it.”</p><p>Caught off guard by his answer, Hermione let out a laugh before she could stop it from escaping. “You’ve seen the movie?”</p><p>The slight flush that had appeared was already disappearing as he stopped a few feet away from her. “Of course I have,” he exclaimed a bit indignantly.</p><p>“Oh, I haven’t seen it,” muttered Hermione. She shrugged when he stared at her in disbelief. It was almost like he was a different person, and it was only the light scent of his cologne also entering the room as he walked closer that erased her suspicious of a potential imposter. “It’s a kids movie that came out pretty recently.”</p><p>“Granger, we’re both still technically children. How were you going to play it properly if you haven’t even seen the movie?”</p><p>Crossing her arms defensively while still holding onto her violin, Hermione replied logically, “I’ll just follow Dumbledore, and it’s not like the music is special just because it appeared in a movie. It’s the same notes as in any other Symphony. Besides, the solo is a small part, and I’m sure the audience will be too busy watching the clips to pay attention to me.”</p><p>“No, you need to feel the music and match it to the story because that’s the beauty of film music!” Malfoy must have seen the confusion in her face because he just dragged a hand down over his face. “Okay, change of plans. Granger, I need to save this concert and the integrity of this music. Let me help you a little bit so you can have your lovely solo and wow the audience just a bit more. We can also call it a thank you for waking me up in time for my Regionals audition.”</p><p>Hermione paused at that. “Why were you asleep right before the audition? I was too nervous to even eat that morning.”</p><p>Malfoy shrugged. “I had early morning workouts for soccer, and I knew I was going to be busy with dinner and family stuff for most of the day. I had to find time to study for an AP Euro exam and a biology test, which ended up being a small nightmare. I took what was meant to be a five minute nap, but I must have messed up setting my alarm.”</p><p>“Oh, okay.” Hermione was still a bit dubious about going over to Malfoy’s house, especially since she didn’t know him very well. Also, was he insulting her by implying she needed to practice at his big fancy house in order to be better?</p><p>Sighing, Malfoy took a step backwards. “It was just an offer, Granger. I also wanted to apologize for my atrocious behavior earlier this year. You are quite talented, and I know why Dumbledore made you Concertmaster. I hope you forgive me for my actions, and the offer for a free rehearsal space will always be there.”</p><p>Snorting a bit, Hermione uncrossed her arms. “You were pretty terrible.”</p><p>The Slytherin winced a bit at that, and Hermione made a quick decision. She walked up to him, and he looked like he was bracing himself for a slap. Smiling at his reaction, she transferred her violin and bow to her left hand before holding out her right. “Hello, my name is Hermione and I’ll be your stand partner for the year. It’s lovely to meet you.”</p><p>Smirking a bit, her stand partner shook her hand firmly. “Hello, Hermione. My name is Draco, and I’m HYSO’s Assistant Concertmaster. I look forward to playing with you.” He loosened his grip and his smirk grew. “Now, will you please let me do my duty and assist, Hermione?”</p><p>Hermione shrugged, ignoring the fact that she liked how he said her name. “Sure, why not. Let’s go see this fancy ballroom.”</p>
<hr/><p>There were a lot of apartments, condos, and houses in Hogsmeade. And then there was Malfoy Manor. The conversation during the short car ride to Malfoy’s home had mainly been some small talk about HYSO gossip and schoolwork, but Hermione could barely continue the conversation after they pulled up to a gate and Draco punched in a code.</p><p>She watched as they passed a large hedge maze, an enormous fountain, a couple greenhouses, what looked like a stable in the distance, and a lake that sat at the base of a vast lawn. Then she saw the house and realized what exactly a manor was. It was grand with countless windows and architecture that Hermione typically associated with old European palaces from history books.</p><p>Draco swiftly parked the car in a large garage and smiled a bit sheepishly. “Welcome to Malfoy Manor.”</p><p>Hermione giggled a bit. “I understand why you called it ‘the Manor’ now. It looks like there would be a lot of free rehearsal space in there.” She quickly hopped out of the car with her violin case and bag as Draco grabbed a gym bag from his trunk.</p><p>Their shoes crunched on the gravel and Draco held open a side door for her. “A lot of the Slytherins have older houses that we’ve called manors for a while.” He led her down a maze of corridors lined with paintings and various sculptures before stopping in front of a particularly ornate set of doors.</p><p>Hermione watched as he stepped into the room. She could tell it was large from the way the heels of his loafers echoed in the room, but it was also pitch black. “Draco?”</p><p>“Sorry, give me a second. Mr. Dobbs still hasn’t gotten around to fixing the wiring after the last party my parents threw in here. Ah, here we go,” his voice came from somewhere on the other side of the room, and Hermione closed her eyes as light suddenly flooded the room.</p><p>Carefully opening her eyes after a few seconds, Hermione’s jaw dropped at the sight. The ballroom was huge, with large glass doors leading to a vast backyard with another enormous lawn, gardens, and fountains. The ceiling arched above her, and several chandeliers glittered in the vast space. There were other doors on the sides of the room and two staircases that led up to a balcony area. She continued to look around the room and realized that the light had come from Draco drawing back the curtains from large windows at the other end of the ballroom.</p><p>Draco looked amused as he walked back towards her. “Well, here is some free rehearsal space.”</p><p>“It’s certainly space. Do you actually hold balls in here?” Hermione crossed over to a table she spotted in the corner and gently set her violin case down to unpack.</p><p>“Sometimes. Mother has some charity galas in here and we have an annual New Year’s Eve party in here,” replied Draco as he pulled open a side panel and took out a music stand and a couple chairs. “The acoustics here are similar to the Hogsmeade hall, so you can test it out.” He searched the floor as he carried the music stand and set it down carefully on a particular spot before turning towards her. “Alright Madame Concertmaster. Let’s see what you’ve got,” he gestured towards the stand with a playful smirk.</p><p>Hermione laughed and walked over before stopping in front of him with a curtsey. She started to tune and smiled at how the sound carried in the vast ballroom. “This is amazing! No wonder you sound good. You get to practice in here whenever you want.”</p><p>Draco’s smirk grew. “You think I sound good?”</p><p>Rolling her eyes, Hermione just shook her head. “I don’t want to inflate your ego any farther, especially since I just got an apology. Let me grab the sheet music.”</p><p>“Wait, you need to understand the context first. Do you have anything planned for today?”</p><p>“I was planning to practice until around lunch time, and then go to the library to study for a bit. Why?” Hermione frowned as Draco went to go get her case.</p><p>“You don’t need to practice that much, but if you have time, I’m going to enlighten you a bit. Pack up,” he lightly ordered as he handed her her case.</p><p>Bemused, Hermione just followed directions and trailed the Slytherin as he led her out another set of doors on the side of the room. They were in a large hall, and Hermione surmised that this was the main foyer that led to the front doors. A short man in a crisp suit stepped into view. “Draco, I didn’t realize you had arrived already. Do you need anything?”</p><p>“No thank you, Mr. Dobbs. We’re just watching a movie for research before practicing for HYSO,” replied Draco in his usual formal voice as he began to walk in a different direction.</p><p>“A movie?” Hermione asked as she hurried after him, his long legs quickly outpacing her.</p><p>“Very good, Draco. Your parents are out this morning, but they’ll expect you at lunch,” called out Mr. Dobbs as they turned the corner.</p><p>Draco slowed down outside a door and checked his watch. “We have lots of time.” He opened the door to reveal a hidden staircase and turned on a light.</p><p>“Wait, Draco. We’re watching a movie? I need to practice for rehearsal,” admonished Hermione as she followed him down the stairs.</p><p>He waved a hand. “I told you, you don’t need that much practice. What you need is context. Besides, Granger. Hermione. You seem like a bit of a swot, so think of this as a lesson.”</p><p>She bristled as they came to the bottom of the staircase and he opened one of the doors to reveal a massive home theater. “There’s nothing wrong with liking to learn.” She was slightly annoyed, but took a moment to appreciate the nice couches, shelves filled with movies, and the large screen across one wall.</p><p>Draco let out a small laugh as he picked out a movie with dragons on the cover. “I never said there was anything wrong with being a swot. Besides, this is a fun lesson.”</p><p>He gestured for her to take a seat, and Hermione picked a cozy-looking armchair and watched as Draco pressed a few buttons and the screen came to life. He tossed her a water bottle and a bag of popcorn from a cabinet before grabbing his own. “A generous host,” observed Hermione as she opened her bag. She had skipped breakfast that morning and was glad to have something to munch on.</p><p>“Of course, I’m an absolute gentleman. And my family tends to take films a bit seriously,” remarked Draco, ignoring Hermione’s snort at his gentleman comment, as he sat in an arm chair next to hers.</p><p>Hermione wasn’t the biggest fan of animated movies, but the plot caught her interest pretty quickly. It was a good thing that it was marketed towards children, as she had a hard time keeping track of names and specifics because Draco kept poking her whenever the film music came into play.</p><p>At first, it was helpful to take note of when the music came in and out and how it added to the scene, but it quickly grew annoying. She leveled him with a death stare after the fifth poke, and was happy that he kept his hands to himself from then on.</p><p>He poked her one last time when the girl, Astrid, got on the dragon and Hermione had had enough. She swatted back at his arm and glared at him. Draco looked surprised and was holding the spot where she had hit him with wide eyes. He raised his hands in surrender and gestured towards the screen.</p><p>Hermione huffed and turned her attention back to the movie as Astrid apologized and the music suddenly shifted. The already familiar soundtrack turned even more familiar as she realized that this was where her solo was and why it was titled <em>Romantic Flight.</em> Watching the characters soar through the sky and through clouds, Hermione was amazed at how well the music tied into the film. The animation was already beautiful, but the melody added so much more to the scene.</p><p>When Astrid said that she admitted it was pretty cool and amazing, Hermione looked over at Draco who was avidly watching her reactions with a small smirk. Sighing, she held up her hands. “Alright, I admit it as well.”</p><p>His smirk grew and he leaned back in his arm chair, seemingly at peace for the first time since the movie started. Hermione was glad that he had stopped bothering her, but ended up picking up on the music more keenly for the rest of the film. When the movie ended, she realized that while she had enjoyed the plot, she had actually enjoyed the score even more. Maybe she would add the soundtrack to her playlist to do math homework to.</p><p>The credits began to roll and Draco rolled his neck besides her. “Well? Do you understand now?”</p><p>Hermione giggled. “I think I understood after that last poke of yours.”</p><p>Rubbing his arm, Draco nodded solemnly. “Didn’t realize you had a temper, Granger. It’s well noted for the future.”</p><p>She winced. “Sorry about that, I didn’t realize you were actually that close.”</p><p>“I’ll live, and I’m sorry as well. I probably should have also actually asked if you noticed the music instead of poking you.”</p><p>Leaning back in her chair, Hermione looked back at the credits still rolling. “I never thought about the music in films, which is odd considering I spend so much time playing music.”</p><p>Draco paused the film and grabbed a laptop that was next to him. “That’s because you think of music solely by itself. You’re like Theo in that sense with all that classical stuff and being a purist. You have to listen to the fun stuff as well.” He pulled up a clip from Pirates that introduced Jack Sparrow standing tall on a sail of what was actually a tiny boat.</p><p>“For instance, the theme for <em>Pirates of the Caribbean</em> is one of the more famous pieces of film music right now. And that’s because it plays a key role in the film,” said Draco as he muted the video. Hermione watched the scene without any sound and just looked back at the Slytherin after a few seconds. He nodded. “See, boring. Even the promise of future battles and pirates and sea monsters wouldn’t keep anyone interested enough to wait for it. But with music,” he said as he started the clip over and unmuted the video to allow the original sound to play, “it becomes interesting and you’re able to keep watching long enough to get to the exciting stuff.”</p><p>Hermione nodded, agreeing with him, as he continued to pull up different clips of movies and talk through the mechanics of film music. It was all fascinating, but Hermione realized that there was something else she was learning beyond what Draco was teaching her.</p><p>This was a Draco Malfoy she had never seen before. He was going off on tangents of diegetic vs non-diegetic music, leitmotifs, mickey-mousing, the use of specific instruments and chords to emphasize time periods and different countries, and the necessity of silence. Hermione realized his usual lofty way of speaking and his formal tone had disappeared.</p><p>His voice had reverted to something else. It was like the time she heard him talking to his mother on the phone and the time he had helped her down from the ladder after the Fall Concert. His voice was warm. And she preferred this tone to the one he usually used.</p><p>“Hermione?”</p><p>She blinked at the question and realized he was asking her if she understood. “It makes much more sense to me. Thank you, Draco.”</p><p>His grey eyes were dancing as he smiled at her and she found herself smiling back. “I didn’t realize you were so into film music or animated movies.”</p><p>Draco laughed and closed his laptop. “Well, I do try not to draw too much attention to my little hobby.” He turned to her and tilted his head a bit. “You’ll keep my secret, won’t you Granger? Blaise would be even more insufferable if he found out.”</p><p>Giggling, Hermione nodded. “Who knew the great Draco Malfoy was a nerd, but sure. I’ll keep your secret if I get to actually play in that ballroom of yours.”</p><p>Draco got up and held out his hand to help her up. “Of course, let’s go.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Apologies for the late update! But hopefully the longer chapter and its contents make up for it??<br/>Thank you for the lovely comments and kudos, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter!<br/>Thanks for reading!!</p>
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